Students get £2,000 to put teen issues in the spotlight (From Craven Herald)

Students get £2,000 to put teen issues in the spotlight

9:30am Friday 10th July 2009 in

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Pupils at West Craven High Technology College in Barnoldswick have received a £2,000 grant to put on a play that will address challenging issues facing teenage girls.

The money has come from the Pendle Community Safety Partnership and will allow a group of 30 year 10 girls from the school to produce both a play and a film that tackles issues such as teenage pregnancy, domestic violence, bullying and gender stereotypes. It also looks at the difficulties that shy people have in trying to make friends.

The school’s drama teacher, Mark Gleeson, said: “The girls are homing in on what problems they perceive that teenagers have.”

He said the girls had been spending time together for six weeks, working on various aspects of the play.

The production will be performed at the town’s Rainhall Centre and local nursing homes, as well as at primary and secondary schools in the area, in November.

Mr Gleeson said while most of the pupils would act on stage, four girls would be in charge of the lighting, sound, directing and continuity.

Jackie Taylforth, who is chairman of the West Craven Area Working Group of the Pendle Community Safety Partnership, said the play would be an exercise in confidence-building that would help the girls learn extra skills that they use could use in a future career.

“Quite a lot of the young girls were very keen to do this and we’re hoping that they can get an accreditation at the end of it,” said Ms Taylforth.

She said the students, who also helped to prepare the grant bid, wanted to show the play and film to the community to give people a more positive image of girls in the area.

“They’re hoping people will see the girls in a more positive way,” said Ms Taylforth. “A lot of times girls can feel quite excluded and in the background because lads get a lot of things.”

She said the number of girls who had come forward to participate in the project came as a surprise, but their keenness was apparent from the start.

“The girls have brought all the ideas forward. They wanted to try to help make people aware of the issues that are out there,” said Ms Taylforth