A listening ear when they need it

Most people are aware that TAYCT is the charity that runs Tetbury Youth Club; a thriving project currently offering 3 busy sessions a week to young people in Tetbury as well as projects, holiday activities and community events all focused around young people and families in the town. 

TAYCT also offers Mentoring. Mentoring provides a trusted and trained adult for young people to spend time with them, listen to them and help them to work through any challenges that they might be facing. In the 2023/24 academic year TAYCT fully funded a youth worker to work in SWR School one day a week offering both 1:1 mentoring for young people and also a lunchtime group for any young people who were struggling to make friends, settle at school or who wanted a safe and quieter space to spend their break time in. Throughout her year there, Becky worked with around 30 young people on a 1:1 basis plus another 15 through the lunchtime clubs. Feedback from the school, parents and most importantly the young people themselves, has been incredibly positive as to the impact that these sessions have had.

““I don’t know what we would have done without the sessions, they really helped her to feel happier at school and also at home where I noticed a huge difference. I worry about her as she is so quiet and doesn’t always talk much so knowing she has someone she likes to talk to makes me feel better about her mental health.””

— Parent of a young person working with our Mentor

TAYCT are pleased to announce that we have successfully applied for grants from the Gloucestershire Community Foundation, the Charles Russell Speechlys Foundation Community Fund, and the High Sheriff of Gloucestershire to allow Becky to continue her Mentoring work in SWR for the 2024/25 academic year. Fully funded by TAYCT, she will continue both the 1:1 work and the lunchtime sessions, supporting the school and working with young people to address their social anxieties, school avoidance, mental health and provide a trusted adult with a listening ear, when they need it.

Youth Club gets out and about!

A group of young people from the Youth Club attended a successful joint project at Westonbirt Arboretum this Spring. It was a 7 week programme culminating in a celebration event. The Wild Westonbirt project aimed to provide young people with a place after school to relax, connect with nature, learn new skills and build confidence. The group were fantastic, once they were comfortable in the setting they flourished and took part in activities such as fire lighting, Kelly Kettles, cooking on the fire, whittling, leaf printing, tree identifying and plenty of s’mores were eaten. The feedback from both the young people and their families was really positive.

Youth sessions continue to be extremely popular, with the welcome return of our firepit, toasting marshmallows, making hot chocolates, endless games of football and cricket on the Rec, sunny evenings spent chatting with friends, chalk drawings and impromptu gymnastics, this summer term has been a busy one at Tetbury Youth Club. Can we politely remind parents that we are only working with and supervising young people who are in our area, at our sessions taking part in our activities, we cannot supervise any other young people who are on the Rec so please make sure you are aware where your child is. 

As we reach the end of the school year we are looking ahead to a busy and fun-filled summer holiday programme. There will be youth drop in sessions, a bus to Cirencester and plenty of family play days at the park put on by TAYCT, World Jungle and Play Gloucestershire. Through the HAF programme for families eligible for Free School Meals we will also be offering access passes to Westonbirt Arboretum including a lunch bag for children, drama workshops and cookery workshops. 

We will further be supporting both Pride and Tetfest this year and youth workers will be at both events so make sure you come and say hi. 

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for up to date information about all the activities taking place. 

Tetbury_youth_club

The TAYCT Team 

Hot dogs, leaf printing & toasted marshmallows!

This half term we are excited to be working with Westonbirt Arboretum to run our Wild Westonbirt Evenings. This project aims to provide a group of young people with a safe space to relax and unwind after a busy day at school, to build self esteem, confidence, learn new skills and to connect with nature. We will be taking a group, by mini bus, accompanied by our youth workers to meet with the team at the Arboretum and to spend time in their fantastic community shelter each Tuesday evening. This project will conclude with a celebration event where the young people are invited to bring friends and family to the shelter during the May Half Term holidays to show them around and demonstrate some of the skills they have learnt. We can’t wait to hear how the group has got on. 

Alongside this we will be running our usual, increasingly busy, drop in youth sessions and are really hoping that by the time this is being read, it will be dry enough for us to get outside on the Rec. 

After a fun-packed Easter holidays including youth drop in sessions, a supported bus trip to Cirencester, Cookery Workshops, an outdoor family play session on The Rec and access passes to Westonbirt Arboretum, we are now looking ahead to May half term and the Summer Holidays.

Please follow us on social media for up-to-date information about our sessions and holiday activities. 

We are always looking for volunteers to help support our sessions, no experience necessary just a friendly face with a willingness to help set up and pack away and support activities when needed is all we are looking for. If you think you may be able to help please contact lisa.hoult@tayct.org.uk. It makes a huge difference to us to have that extra pair of hands and will allow us to continue to engage with and support the huge number of young people who are currently accessing our sessions. Please get in touch, we need you! 

The TAYCT Team

Our young people are cooking up a storm!

Whilst the evenings have been cold and dark we have been enjoying lots of cooking at Tetbury Youth Club including making curries, chillies, homemade pasta as well as pancakes and pizzas. It has been wonderful to see how motivated and confident some of our young people are with cooking and how willing they are to try something new. We have some young people who are really stepping up and taking the lead with the cooking and preparing of food and look forward to some Ready-Steady-Cook competitions coming soon! 

Alongside this we have been offering our usual space for games, activities, crafts, music and a safe space for young people to meet friends and access trusted adults if they want to.

At the time of writing we are preparing for half term, we have a youth drop in session running, a bookable embroidery and sewing workshop at Highgrove Traditional Crafts and we have invited Play Gloucestershire to run one of their fantastic Play Days on the Rec. All activities are free and we look forward to seeing many young people, children and families taking advantage of these fun opportunities. 

At Easter we will be running 2 drop in youth sessions on the Rec, an outdoor family play session, a supported trip to Cirencester on the bus for young people, cookery workshops for children and families and we will be funding 50 passes for families eligible for Free School Meals to visit Westonbirt Arboretum over the Easter break. These passes will include a lunch pack for all children.  

Don’t say there is nothing to do in Tetbury!

Follow us on social media for timings and details of all sessions and activities being offered

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As we excitedly countdown the days to Christmas...

please remember that for some, and especially for some children and young people, Christmas can be a very challenging time. Whilst we eat our mince pies, sing our songs and enjoy our Christmas decorations, please also take the time to check in with those around you. It can be a lonely place when everyone else seems to be celebrating the “most wonderful time of the year.” 

After the success of our Family Play Session in the Dolphins Hall over October half term, we are planning to hold another one on Wednesday 3rd January 10-12pm. This is a morning for families with young children to come and enjoy a warm space to play, meet with friends and enjoy some activities and food. This is a drop in event, no booking required. 

On Friday 5th January during the day we will be running another exciting activity day at Westonbirt Arboretum with the wonderful community team there. This will be for Yr7-Yr 11 children. Finally on that same evening we will be holding a New Years party for Year 7

-Yr 11 at the Dolphins Hall, music, food and lots of fun to be had.  All activities are free to attend. Please follow us on social media for booking details when they are released.

Our regular youth club sessions continue to be extremely busy and full of fun, we have enjoyed a visit from DJ Rev Steve Bullock who demonstrated his skills on the decks and allowed the young people to have a go which they thoroughly enjoyed. We have held pamper evenings, enjoyed crafts, pumpkin painting, soap making, jewellery making, team games and at the time of writing are looking forward to a visit from Grace Del-Nevo, who is very kindly running a yoga session for our young people. We also have Sue Price from the foodbank coming to demonstrate some recipe ideas and bring some lovely slow-cooker meals to inspire our young people and of course, there shall be plenty of festive fun in the coming weeks.

We wish everyone a safe and peaceful Christmas and look forward to an exciting calendar of events in 2024.

Happy Holidays from the TAYCT Team