Norfolk Pact

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WHAM 2008

14 July 2008 09:30:35 GMT

Young people from across the county have once again risen to the challenge of the WHAM Project which is co-ordinated by Norfolk PACT, Partners Against Crime Taskforce and supported by Norwich Union.
Young people are invited to work on a project of their own choosing which will make a difference in the area where they live or go to school. Five teams are now through to the Final Round of the competition and the prize at stake is ‘The Holiday of Their Dreams’.

Footprints Campaign – Bethany Wales (15), Laura Gardner (15), Lauren Miller (15) and Becky Self (14) are pupils of Broadland High School and their project was set up to help improve people’s self image, self esteem and self respect. Their campaign is based around three main pledges: “Leave an impression”, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” and “Count Your Blessings”.
They have produced a Pride Passport in which recipients write 5 things they love about themselves and then one thing a “Friend likes about me”, “Parent/Guardian likes about me”, “Form tutor likes about me” and a “Younger Person likes about me” and young people are invited to sign up to their campaign. They intend to set up a display at school of the night sky full of stars and star templates have been sent out to pupils for them to write their blessings on which can be anything you are grateful for: from passing an exam, having good friends, being healthy, not starving – anything that is important to them and that they are grateful for. They have persuaded a printer to print 12,000 Pride Passports and 150 posters for them free of charge.

The Drug Squad – Oliver Brown (14), David Krumins (14), Tom Lee (14) and Tom Miller (14) are pupils at Framingham Earl High School and their plan was to visit the Feeder Schools for their High School. The produced a power point which they showed to Year 6 children about the effects of drugs and the consequences of taking them. They went into Brooke Primary School, Rockland Primary School, Poringland Primary School, Trowse Primary School, Surlingham Primary School and Stoke Holy Cross. They contacted many local businesses and persuaded them to donate 300 pens and pencils, 600 stickers saying No to Drugs, 400 contact cards, Cinema Guest Passes, tickets for Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach which they gave out as prizes. They produced goody bags to give out which included FRANK booklets and the teachers at the school were asked to evaluate their project. They were also able to get polo shirts donated with The Drug Squad embroidered on them.

The Moorhens – Alice Morling (12), Leanne Bowen (15) pupils of Great Yarmouth High School and Samuel Morling (15) pupil of Fred Nicholson School – Dereham whose project is about promoting healthy eating, understanding where food comes from and the impact of obesity on bullying.
They held an event at Great Yarmouth High School where they had over 26 different fruits and vegetables on display and held a competition where visitors had to identify as many of them as possible and held food tasting and a food miles game. A community dietician gave a short talk and was available afterwards for a Question and Answer session which was very informative. Samuel stood up and gave a short talk about how he felt when he was bullied because of his rapid weight gain.
They went on to give presentations to new intake pupils at Caister High School, and to the Priory Centre in Great Yarmouth and The Burrage Centre at the James Paget Hospital. They are also holding non-uniform days at Great Yarmouth High School and the Fred Nicholson School and the money raised will support an anti-bullying campaign.

F.A.C.E. –Focus, Aspiration, Confidence, Equality – Catherine Batch (15), Megan Purdy (15), Jason Hagon (15) and Lewis Warren (15) are pupils at Aylsham High School and their project is about promoting positive body image and being happy with who you are. They are focusing on eating disorders as it is a topic constantly in the media and their objective is to have a group in school that can deal solely with eating disorders and body image. They have visited Aldborough Primary School, Bure Valley Primary School, Buxton Primary School and Colby Primary School and their presentation included games and activities and the young people said they felt more confident and happy with themselves after the workshop.
They gave a presentation to the full governing body of Aylsham High School to gain their support and have arranged a non-uniform day at school to raise funds and aim to hold an event in September called the FACE festival, a 2 day event – promotional literature states FACE Festival is a weekend for everyone to feel proud of who they are and what they look like. They will hold a fashion show as part of the festival to promote all body shapes and sizes and bands will also be invited to play.

S.O.S. – Stand Out Self Pride – Amy Phillips-Jones (15), Jessica Sutcliffe (15), Anna Mijnlieff (15) and Sasha Catchpole (15) are pupils of Aylsham High School and their project is aimed at raising awareness of the positive things that young people can achieve rather than always hearing about the negative side of youth today.
They applied to Broadland District Council for a grant of Ł500 and the Norfolk Youth Fund for Ł800 of funding and were successful in both applications. This enabled them to hire the Norwich Playhouse and on 25th June they invited along 7 bands for an evening of celebration. There was so much interest in this gig that they had to hold auditions to choose the bands which would play. This was well attended and raised funds which will be used to host a Year 6 Disco on 11th July at Aylsham High School for pupils moving up to the school in September.
This group have shown that they have the skills necessary to plan, promote and run an event which many older people would find daunting. Their project also shows an awareness of the difficulties that young people may sometimes experience in the transition to High School and they have taken steps to minimise this.

The Grand Final is being held on Tuesday 15th July, 7.30 start, in the ARC, CNS School, Eaton Road, Norwich, NR4 6PP when the winning team will be announced.
If you require any further information please contact Teresa Tucker at Norfolk PACT on 07881 813624 or 01953 424722.