Children and Families Team Young People's Consultation Group

We have been meeting up with pupils from Applefields School for over four years. Wendy Mitchell and Bryony Beresford organise the meetings and other people in the Children and Families Team sometimes come along too. View a short video here, showing our consultation work with this group in 2010.

We meet at school at least twice a term, usually on a Friday afternoon. The group changes a bit each school year as pupils leave Applefields to go to college or move onto other things.

We find working with the group really helpful. For example, the group gave us some great ideas about how to make the leaflets about our projects more helpful and interesting. In 2010 the group helped us with a project we were working on called ‘Researching the lives of disabled children and young people, with a focus on their perspectives’. In our meetings we talked about the things that make our lives good and enjoyable and things that spoil our days or make us unhappy. The group used lots of different ways to share what they thought about their lives with other researchers who were taking part in this project. They created a multi-media presentation of their work on well-being and identity which was shown at a project seminar. An ex-member of the group contributed this artwork for the presentation.

Every summer the young people come to spend the day at the University and, as part of the trip, we show them some of the work and facilities which the University has. In 2011, we visited the new Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University:

The group being shown the new theatre space in the department		In the television studio. The green curtain means that computer generated animation can be added to the picture later.		Having a go at being interviewed on television.

After lunch in the Hub cafe on the new Heslington East campus the young people choose to look round something that particularly interests them such as the kitchens to meet the University chef, the sports hall, the hospital ward simulation unit or the shop to see what it would be like to work in these places:

The day ended with tea and cakes back at SPRU before getting on the bus to return to school.

If you are interested in joining the group and would like to find out more, please get in touch with Lucy Stuttard

Click here, or in the menu bar to go to a list of our current research projects.