The programmes that the Medway Cultural Education Partnership are working on collaboratively are:
Creative Schools Network
The Medway Creative Schools Network was borne from the MCEP. It gives all Medway Schools regular forums to share best practice in cultural education, connect with the local creative and cultural sector, and build effective partnerships to benefit young people and children in Medway. The Creative Schools Network meets 3 times a year.
To sign up, email info@medwaycreativeschools.network – you will then be added to the distribution list to be kept updated with news of cultural offers, events and projects and receive invites to future forums and network gatherings.
Refresh Medway - Zest Theatre
An installation sharing the words of young people to envision the future – Taking place across Medway
As the regeneration of Medway continues, the words of young people are unleashed to imagine a better world.
Zest Theatre have been running workshops for hundreds of children and young people aged 8-18 across Medway over the last year.
Phase 2 – Gillingham and Strood
In October 2023, Zest Theatre met young people across Gillingham and Strood. This time, workshops specifically gathered their thoughts on Climate Change, with artworks set to appear across their towns in March 2024!
Our aim? To create space for young people to reflect on their experience of the last few years and release the voice of a generation. Co-led with local young people, these workshops will enable the next generation to share their thoughts and feelings about everything as they ponder the future of their community.
Over the next 12 months, their words will be turned into vibrant artworks, ready to be found at sites across Medway!
Refresh Medway places the voices of young people at the heart of their changing community, bringing colour and a fresh outlook to the place they call home!
#RefreshMedway
.https://zesttheatre.com/refresh-medway – Click here to see some images from the recent installation!
Click here to find out more about upcoming events!
Past Projects
Theatre 31
Theatre31 was a major three-year young people’s performing arts programme for Medway and Sheppey running from 2019 to 2022.
Inspired by the idea that cultural and artistic activities are the right of every young person, Theatre31 enabled children, with no or low access to culture, to take part in free performing arts activities. The programme used theatre and drama to support participants to gain personal, social, professional and creative skills that lead to education and employment.
Theatre31’s work mainly took place in deprived areas of Medway and Sheppey, often working with young people who found themselves at the margins of society through poverty, social isolation, life in care and the criminal justice system.
Theatre31 enabled over 5,000 young people to develop performance, backstage and technical skills and has transformed the way schools and arts organisations work together in the region.
In 2022, Theatre31 was awarded the coveted Editor’s Award at the Music and Drama Education Awards.
Effective and Enlightening Transition Programme
Medway is a complex school system in relation to transition from Year 6 to Year 7. The Effective and Enlightening Transition programme seeks to improve this transition phase for year 6 pupils joining two pilot secondary schools, The Victory Academy and St John Fisher RC Comprehensive.
In phase one all pupils took part in ‘mixer’ activities including workshops with Strangeface Theatre company and Daisy Farris Dance collective. The children also visited Chatham Historic Dockyard and took part in a guided tour seeing areas of the Dockyard not accessible to the public.
Children involved in phase one of the programme reported they:
- met new people going to the same school
- made new friends
- Felt reassured and developed confidence
- The transition programme helped a lot
In phase two pupils will ‘make Medway their classroom’ by engaging with a bespoke package of arts and cultural activities. This will involve one timetabled afternoon per week for all year 7 pupils with a focus on the arts/cultural entitlement.
Ultimately, our objective is to ensure that all pupils settle in more quickly, improve their attendance and have a collaborative support network in place from their first day at secondary school.
