Code of Conduct and Fruit Sushi....

Tonight the group sat down together and began to discuss and design a code of conduct. The idea is that it is the young peoples club, so they should discuss, agree and implement their own rules. This is to give them some ownership as well as a sense of responsibility.



 

 

This will be an ongoing piece of work and is something that the group are enjoying and looking forward to developing.

 

After the first hour of tonights session, the group took part in a cooking activity making fruit sushi. This was really fun, messy and most importantly tasted good!

 

 

The Ingredients that we used were- fresh fruit, marshmallow rice krispies, tortilla wraps, honey and chocolate sauce!

 

 

Here are the finished products!

 

Banana Surgery and Desert Island Essentials

Tonight the group took part in some activities that focused on teamwork, communication, emotions and imagination.

The first game we played was called "Banana Surgery". The aim of the game was to peel a banana and cut the banana into 5 pieces. Once this was done, in pairs we were tasked with attempting to piece the banana back to as near to its original look as possible using only cocktail sticks, sticky tape, string and elastics bands.

The game was really fun, messy and enabled us to communicate with each other, share ideas and be creative. Below are the final efforts of the group.

This game was great for enabling us to recognise and appreciate that relationships, events and reputations can be easily broken, damaged or taken apart. However they are not always as easy to put back together. This game got us all thinking about ourselves and our relationships.

We finished the evening with a fun game based on the idea that we were all about to be dropped on a desert island. We all had to choose the 1 thing we thought would help us to survive on the island. There were some weird, wonderful and cleverly thought out ideas.

Once everybody had decided their 1 item and explained why they thought it would help us on the island, we then had a group vote to decide the 5 most wanted items we would take with us. 

Tonight we also said goodbye to one of our youth workers, Abigail. Abi has been an amazing member of the team and will be missed by everyone.

Next week is half term so there are no evening clubs. However we have 3 off site activites taking place- Go-Karting, Cinema trip and a trip to the national youth orchestra.

Young Peoples Feedback Discussion Evening

This evening we sat as a group and took part in a feedback discussion. We discussed a number of issues and ideas that we have for the youth club.

The discussion was really good and gave us the opportunity to have our voices heard and to feel a part of the decision making process.

Below you will find some of the questions and answers from the session. We really hope that you enjoy reading them.

Why do you come to Youth Club?

“I come to youth club to talk to my friends and to see my friends”.

“It gets me out the house and doing something more meaningful than playing my xbox”

“ I come to Rathbone club to have fun and to make new friends”

“ I enjoy going out with the group and learning new things”

“I have improved my communication and teamwork skills” 

“To feel a part of a community”

Where there any questions you’d have liked to ask staff before you joined?

“Will I get on with the other members?”

“How much does it cost?”

“Can I speak to anyone before coming if I am nervous?”

“Will staff help me?”

What Is important to you?

“Finishing college and getting a job”

“Getting a girlfriend and getting married”

“Going to University”

“Being safe and knowing my family are safe”

“To learn new things”

“To love and respect myself”

 

Things you’d like to change?

“To take part in more challenging activities, such as abseiling and camping in the woods”

“ Having a better equipped facility”

“Having more desktop computers rather than tablets”

“Having more female members”

 

Are staff able to support you?

“Staff are always there if I need to talk to someone”

“Staff give me good advice”

“Staff listen to me and allow me to express myself”

“Staff know how to manage my behaviour”

“Staff comfort me when I am upset”



Chinese New Year Celebration

Tonight the group spent the session celebrating Chinese New Year.

 

We spent the evening making Chinese Lanterns and decorating Porcelain Dragons.

 

Some of us also prepared and cooked a vegetable stir fry. We sat together as a group and ate the meal. Everyone enjoyed the food and had a great evening!

Bob "Rathbone" Marley!

Tonight we embraced the annual event of black history month by watching a documentary style movie about the life of Bob Marley.

The film was really interesting and provoked a lot of discussion and debate about him and his life.

We had a bit of a quiz about what we had seen on the film and tested each others knowledge on the songs made famous by Bob Marley and about his outlook on life.

Who knew that he once lived down the road in Stockwell?!

New Term, New Equipment

On Tuesday 10th September we started back at youth club.

We took ownership of 6 brand new nexus notebooks, we will be able to access the Internet, play games and much more on the go!

We had a group chat about what everyone got up to during the summer, some people stayed in England and enjoyed the small amount of sunshine we had and some of us went as far away as Spain and Thailand!

Next week we shall be setting up our new wireless keyboards to use with the netbooks!

Summer Day Trip To Littlehampton

On Friday 30th August 6 young people and 2 family members took up the opportunity to visit Littlehampton on a day trip with Rathbone.

We set off at 9am without any delays!

After negotiating our way through the traffic of Croydon, we had a clear run through to Littlehampton.

On arrival we made our way down to the beach, the weather was overcast so there wasn't many people around. Some of us were brave enough to dip our toes....and knees into the sea! It was freezing!

Some of us had fun drawing and writing in the sand before we dried off and went for a fun game of crazy golf.

                 

After golf we took a walk along the seafront and found the fairground and a nice restaurant we we stopped for lunch. Some of us embraced the surroundings by having fish and chips whereas some stuck to burgers!

After lunch we entered the fairground and went on a number of different rides as well as playing on the arcade machines.

At 3pm we left Littlehampton and made out way back to West Norwood.

The day was really fun and we all enjoyed ourselves.



"Rathbone at Woodrow"- The Movie!

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to visit our blog.

 

We hope that you enjoy our photo movie of our week at Woodrow High House. The photos really capture and underline the key characteristics, skills and attributes that we feel are essential and deserved of every young person that we work with.

 

Happy Viewing!

 

 

We would very much encourage and welcome your feedback.

Sunny and fulfilling Day 4 at Woodrow

The morning started off with low ropes, everyone worked together as a team to support and encourage each other. This was a challenging activity that required patience, perseverance, balance and clear communication.

After a quick refreshments break, the swimming pool was a welcome activity in order to cool down and have some unstructured fun! We enjoyed this so much that we have asked to do it again before we go home on Friday.

After another tasty lunch, we did an activity called "night line". This involved being blindfolded and leading each other like a human caterpillar through an obstacle course and through the woods. This was so much fun!

We also had the opportunity to walk over a rope bridge that was very high and very wobbly!

This evening we joined with another group who are also enjoying their last evening for a disco. There were plenty of moves occurring on the dance floor and some of us enjoyed choosing the songs to be played.

After the disco we got together as a group to have a discussion about the experiences of the last week. This was also used as a diversion tactic to allow us to give a selection of personal messages of thanks and goodbye to 1 of our youth workers, Martin. Martin will be hugely missed and has been an amazing and well respected member of staff over the years.

Day 3 of Woodrow Residential

Day 3 of our residential trip to Woodrow began with yet another appetising breakfast that set us all up for the day ahead.

Our first activity was a drumming workshop. The group really enjoyed themselves and unlocked some amazing rythmic and lyrical talents by writing and composing some fun songs about their time at Woodrow.

After our drumming workshop, we went on a very nice and tranquil walk through the woods before sitting down for lunch and having some down time.

Indoor basketball was next and everyone enjoyed themselves and burnt off the calories from lunch!

Our final activity of the day was a great team building activity of building a shelter outside. Everyone joined in and supported one another to ensure the shelter was built to survive all weathers!!

After yet another delicious dinner, we joined another group and had a good old fashioned sing song around a campfire. This was great fun and many of us were brave enough to stand up and engage everyone in as variety of sing along songs. This was great for getting to know the members of the other group.

Wonderful and Wet Woodrow Day 2

After a late night the group woke up for a hearty breakfast and to begin our first full day of activities.

Our first activity was called "eggs can fly" which consisted of the group bring split into 3 small groups. Each group had to devise a safety device to protect a water balloon from bursting when thrown from the second storey of the house.

Unfortunately all the groups devices failed to survive the force of the drop!

This activity was great for building communication and teamwork skills.

After a quick break we took a walk outside in torrential rain to do some pond dipping.

There were many types of insects and pond life found by the young people.

After drying off and having a very nice pasta lunch we spent the afternoon taking part in archery and indoor sports.

Today has been a very productive and fulfilling day with everyone working together to challenge, encourage and enjoy themselves.

Wonderful Woodrow Day 1

Today 10  young people arrived at Woodrow High House in Buckinghamshire. The excitement of leaving the sunny skies of Lambeth reached fever pitch by the time we had reached Earls Court!

We arrived shortly before midday and were welcomed by other fantastic London Youth staff.

The group were given a guided tour of the building and surrounding grounds.

We had a nice lunch before taking part in our first activity of our week away which was orienteering. The group split into 2 and mainly got lost in the woods!

Next up was a team building exercise which required lots of group discussion, encouragement and perseverance.

After getting caught in the beginning of a thunderstorm, dinner was a welcome relief!

 The evenings entertainment consisted of a fun yet slightly competitive (Scott...!) General knowledge quiz. 

After the quiz we had the rest of the evening to ourselves, Group rules were decided and we watched some TV on the laptop before retiring to bed.

Bring on tommorow!!

June Update

Hello and welcome to our latest blog post, The June Update.

Firstly, congratulations go to our volunteer Clifton who has successfully passed his food safety course. Well Done Clifton!!

During the last few weeks we have taken part in off site activities such as bowling and evenings in the park enjoying games and the erractic British summer!

We have also moved venue on a Tuesday evening. We are now based at the Emmanuel Centre in Clive Road, West Norwood.

On our first evening we held a small welcome party for the group and also used the evening to have a service user led discussion regarding the club. This proved to be a very worthwhile and engaging activity.

We have also held a pictorial quiz which was a great success and had the group fully engaged.