At the end of a full academic year, with exams behind us, we felt it was time to give the students a new learning experience, out of the classroom and acquiring for most a new skill and opportunity to be part of a team. Drum Works visited RAP on Tuesday 12th July 2022 and gave our young people the chance to be part of an ensemble that produced a collaborative piece named ‘Gift’ chosen by the students. The emphasis of giving the young people full ownership of the creative process also saw students working in harmony and developing skills involved in team work. These soft skills are sometimes overlooked, so the day provided a fun way to enhance those skills and produce a piece of work that all pupils could be proud of.
The neighbours were informed ahead of the session as we knew it would be loud, but we were pleasantly surprised when neighbours came outside their doors and joined in the spirit by dancing along and making comments such as ‘it’s just like Notting Hill Carnival… but in our street’.
Drum works vision and values – “ Our vision is to build a cohesive community where every individual is empowered to make positive choices, to aim high and to take responsibility for their role in supporting others.”
They achieve this by:
‘Empowering young people: creating an environment where every individual’s ideas are valued, helping to raise confidence and aspirations
Increasing engagement: demonstrating that active participation enables high achievement and promoting greater engagement in school life and community
Encouraging social cohesion: bringing young people from different backgrounds, different schools and different boroughs together to collaborate.”
