Posted 12 July 2019

From Here to There

A note on the project lead:

Tom Senior, worked as an Outreach Officer on behalf of Go Higher West Yorkshire, employed by Leeds Beckett University. Tom initiated the idea of students expressing their ideas, hopes and fears towards Higher Education through a variety of academic subject areas. This project was driven by his belief in giving young people the opportunity to channel their views and opinions through the medium of art and media. His legacy and memory will live on through the art and music produced as part of this project and the positive impact it has had on the students involved.

An overview of the project:

From HEre to tHEre is a collaborative project facilitated by Go Higher West Yorkshire designed to encourage students to reflect on their journey from school and college to Higher Education. From HEre to tHEre links the disciplines of Art, Music, Media and Geography to give an intriguing insight into the perceptions of our young people towards Higher Education. The project was split into two strands. From HEre to tHEre 1 (FHTT1) involved approximately 70 students in Years 12 and 13 from New College Pontefract, while From HEre to tHEre 2 (FHTT2) was focused on roughly 30 students from Year 10 students from St. Wilfrid’s Catholic High School and Cockburn School.

 

FHTT 1 – New College Pontefract:

Students from Art, Music and Geography lessons were briefed in November 2018 to produce a piece of work exploring the journey from College to Higher Education and the feelings associated with this. The first two stages of the project involved visits to New College from PhD students, student ambassadors and university staff which gave students an opportunity to learn new skills and get an understanding of what study is like at Higher Education. Stage 3 gave students the opportunity to visit a university; students from Art, Music and Geography visited Leeds Arts University, University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University respectively. The university visits allowed for students to get a taste of life at Higher Education and listen. to some truly inspirational speakers including Ken Scott (Producer of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust). Stage 4 allowed for students to present their work internally and receive valuable feedback from subject specialists. The project concluded in excellent fashion last week with a showcase event at New College Pontefract. The showcase was well attended and included performances by the Music students, a myriad of different pieces of Art and posters produced by Geography students. Amongst the many who attended the event was Rhubarb Radio, who produced a 1 hour show from the event including student and staff interviews.

FHTT 2 – Cockburn and St. Wilfrid’s Catholic High School

In early 2019, during a number of after-school sessions, two groups of roughly 15 committed year 10 students began to produce content for animations. The content produced included voice recordings, videos and drawings. Students from each school visited the inspiration graphic design suite within the Broadcasting Place building at Leeds Beckett University on two separate days. During these visits, students used their content along with the knowledge and skills of student ambassadors and industry expert Alan Dunn to produce a number of short animations. These animations were showcased on two occasions, the first was on the big screen at Millennium square and the second at the prestigious Wakefield Art Walk within the Hepworth building.

 

Review:

The from HEre to tHEre project allowed roughly 100 students from a variety of backgrounds to visit university and  experience what life is like in Higher Education. Feedback for the project from members of the public, staff and students has been overwhelmingly positive. We hope that by asking students to explore their feelings towards Higher Education, while simultaneously giving them a taste of university life that students’ aspirations have been raised and participants of the FHTT project realise that Higher Education is a place for them.