Merry Christmas from ReconnectEd’s young people!

As part of our ‘Expanding Horizon’s Project’, some of our pupils took part in a 10 week ‘early intervention’ crafts project during the Autumn term, to develop their artistic skills, confidence and engagement, run by Dawn Ireland, a professional artist. These are the Christmas cards our young people made during their last session.

Dawn told us: “I’ve seen them become more confident with using different materials and although to begin with some were hesitant to try, saying they couldn’t draw, or couldn’t sew, they all had a go and enjoyed it. Some were really proud of what they had made. Over the weeks I’ve seen a positive change in these amazing young people. They have so much potential. I will miss working with them”.

We are so grateful to The Radcliffe Trust for funding this project. It’s so important to us that we can offer these ‘positive growth mindset’ activities to our young people. Drawing on established research, through this project we aimed to improve engagement with learning through strengths-based activities to reinforce and open up new neural pathways. We also aimed for the ReconnectEd pupils to develop critical life skills such as team work, leadership and independent learning. The practical nature of working alongside a professional artist will help the children to attain transferable skills such as independent working, teamwork and creativity.