THE TOWN’S Woodfield Academy is to host a new programme tackling extreme behaviour in young people’s society.
Round Midnight Ltd, a Birmingham-based Creative Arts company, will bring ‘Follow Me’ to the Studley Road site on January 19 after meeting with Redditch MP Karen Lumley to discuss rolling the production out into all secondary schools across the Midlands.
The interactive performance aims to empower youngsters to examine who they are and the world around them – exploring how these two things fit together.
‘Follow Me’, which has been touring in Birmingham since 2014, is directed by Claire Downes and Stuart Lane who are writers behind ITV 2’s The Job Lot.
Sami Cornick from Matchborough, development manager for Round Midnight said: “’Follow Me’ is a 45 minute interactive performance aimed at school Years 7 – 11, sixth form and Further Education.
“It equips young people with the knowledge, understanding and awareness of life and society and uses these skills to explore the push/pull factors that can affect young people’s decisions and lead them to extremist/radical thoughts and behaviour.”
Schools and colleges are now required to act on new initiatives aimed at tackling extremism, which Sami said the current production addressed.
“Our piece falls in line with the initiatives employed by the “Recommendations of the Trojan Horse Review Group”, and the Department of Education’s objectives of tackling extremism in schools.
“We think it is imperative that we act now on educating our young people about this – particularly in light of the tragedies that have taken place over the past few weeks. “Follow Me” has been touring in Birmingham since September 2014 but with MP Karen Lumley’s endorsement, guidance from the Department for Education and the Home Office we really hope this will enable us to deliver this important performance to as many schools in the Midlands as possible.”
