Hello
and welcome to the new edition of Theydon Youth News! I hope you enjoy
all the latest news that's been happening in Theydon and if you have
any more updates or ad's you would like me to display or any queries
then please don't hesitate to email
me :)
Ellie
Bedwell
Theydon
Bois Astrokyds
Astrokyds
is a group for young astronomers (6 - 14 years) run by some members
of the Loughton Astronomical Society. It has been running in Theydon
Bois and still going strong for over 10 years now! Meetings are held
on the second Friday of every month from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. at St Mary's
Church Hall.

Activities include simple experiments, audience participation, demonstrations,
show and tell, quizes, mythology of the constellations and, if clear,
some real observing. The aim is to kindle the interests rather than
to provide a formal course in astronomy. Even some of the parents
have been caught listening and in one case taking notes. Some of the
more advanced young astronomers help out with some of the talks and
demonstrations.
I was part of the Astrokyds for nearly 4 years and learnt a tremendous
amount about astronomy, which I still take a keen interest in now!
Every meeting there was always something different to look forward
to, and Brian and the team always made sure to make it fun-filled
and truly exciting with lots of interactive activities. The best bits
were always the winter meetings where we got to look through telescopes
to see planets and constellations from the Church Hall car park! This
even spurred my dad (a keen astronomer, who also took notes!) to buy
our own telescope where we used to spend Saturday nights looking over
Theydon fields observing planets and the stars - I've seen Saturn
with its rings from my own back garden! I would truly recommend such
a wonderful society to everyone young and old. It equips people of
all stages with knowledge and enthusiasm about
astronomy that will never be lost, as well as creating new friendships
that will last a very long time :) (Ellie
Bedwell).
If
you think your young astronomer(s) would like to join the group in
Theydon Bois or you would like some advice on setting up your own
group then please phone Brian Morton on 01992 815804 or email
him. If you would like more information about Astrokyds or the
Loughton Astronomical Society visit: http://www.las-astro.org.uk/astrokyds.php
The
next dates for the diary are:
10
Feb 2012: Probes to the outer Solar System
09
Mar 2012: Gravity, light, the colours of stars
They
do not meet in August or April, even astromoners need some time off!
Davenant
Pupils help at successful Theydon Seniors Event
On
Friday 25th November, I, along with fellow my fellow peers at Davenant
Foundation School, voluntarily helped at the Theydon Bois Seniors
Christmas Party. It was a very successful and pleasant afternoon with
both the young and the' young at heart 'all joining together with
music, singing and lots of cake!

Everyone
enjoyed watching the Theydon Bois Primary School pupils sing lots
of Christmas songs and we joined in with those that both they and
'Singing 4 Fun' played. We were very humbled and entertained by the
local seniors who look forward to this event every year, and had many
stories to tell us of their children and grandchildren - many of whom
were associated with Davenant in one way or another. One pupil, Melissa
Wood, even sung an impromptu performance of 'Silent Night', of which
the whole room was silenced by such a beautiful voice.


We
were all so glad that we had the opportunity to attend such a lovely
event and took great pleasure in knowing our help was much appreciated
by both the seniors and the amazing volunteers from the Parish Council
who made the afternoon a huge success with lovely homemade cakes,
pouring endless cups of tea and all the 'backstage' jobs in-between.
Ellie
Bedwell
My
Trip to South Africa!
On
the 9th August 2011 I was lucky enough to join a team of 20 UK students
jetting out to Durban, South Africa, for three weeks. We were out
there doing voluntary work for a charity called Hillcrest Aids, which
is based in Hillcrest near The Valley of A Thousand Hills. The charity
works with families who are affected/infected by HIV/Aids. The charity
has set up many income-generation projects for the local people and
families of patients to make sure many of them have some kind of self-
sustaining income whilst going through such a tragedy. You can find
out more at http://www.hillaids.org.za/

The
three week project involved working in a school called KwaManzini
Primary School in a township area on one of the Valley's. All of the
children in this school are the few lucky ones across this region
in South Africa to be going to school and nearly all were Zulu, with
English as their second language. We were helping them because many
of the children had family who were infected/affected by HIV or they
themselves had developed it. We had planned in the two weeks while
we were in the school to totally redecorate and paint their classrooms
and had also designed our own lesson plans to teach them in smaller
groups and show them a bit of our English culture as well as have
lots of fun with them. We split the classes of Grade 6 and 7 into
4 subject areas - English, Maths, Music Art Drama (MAD) and PE. The
school had very few resources and was not very well kept, and the
'field' they had for us to do PE on was unfortunately just a dusty,
sandy bit of earth. In turn, we found that this made the children
so appreciative of everything we did for them and for all the resources
we had left behind for them that we had bought out with us - especially
stickers, footballs and pencils! We had successfully decorated 8 classrooms
in 8 days which was extremely hard work as all the classrooms were
made of brick and not plaster, so paint had to have many layers, and
with all the cleaning we had to do we also came across dozens of cockroaches
and even a rat!! However, the look on their faces for everything we
had done for them by the end of the two weeks made everything so worthwhile.
I'm sure none of us will forget that feeling of pride and joy that
overwhelmed us on our last day when we were presented with gifts,
handmade cards and a music performance for us all to enjoy, I never
wanted to leave!!
As well as the hard work we had put in for 10 days, we were also treated
with a bit of luxury as we all stayed with host families who lived
about half an hour away in more affluent areas, called Kloof and Pinetown.
We were matched with these families before going out to South Africa
and this is where we stayed every night of the trip. Each weekend
they would also take us out to places of our choice and really looked
after us. I thoroughly enjoyed staying with my family and by then
end of the three weeks I really felt like I had a second family in
South Africa which I could go back to anytime! Some examples of where
they took me were a marine sea life centre called uShaka, Durban North
beach, the cinema, and a family fun day in Durban as I had the pleasure
of the company of 18 month old twin 'siblings' for three weeks - soo
adorable!
As
if that wasn't enough, on our first weekend in South Africa we were
also treated to a small trip to St.
Lucia Wetland Park, north of Durban,
where we went on Safari for a day! We were incredibly lucky enough
to see wild dog, rhino, hippo, crocodile, impala, and buffalo (2 of
the Big 5!) but sadly no elephant or lion. We loved learning about
the South African culture; food being a very big part of it! We cooked
two 'Braais', which is what the British might call a BBQ, but the
meat in South Africa is amazing! A lot of us took recipes home for
our families such a Milk Tart and Samp (a traditional Zulu dish).
We all got along so well with each other on this trip and are now
all very close friends, and hope to stay in contact with each other
for a very long time.
Overall,
this was an amazing experience, one which I will never forget. It
has really changed my perspectives of the things I take for granted
at home and has also exhilarated me in the knowledge that we may have
actually made some of those children's lives more exciting and hopeful
knowing there are people out there who want to help them. I would
definitely recommend this trip to anyone who would be thinking of
applying through the charity and for a personal gain in strength,
commitment, hard work and delight.
New
"Time to Shine" Dance School
September
saw the opening of a new dance school in the Theydon Community centre
offering classes in tap, ballet, modern and street jazz. Sandra Westburyne
chose Theydon Bois as she started her dancing career in St Mary's
Hall at the age of just 3 years old, and would love now to give the
children the same great opportunity that she had growing up. "It
has always been my dream to own my own dance school, and now with
19 years of experience of dancing professionaly and teaching, I feel
now is the right "time to shine"".

Epping
Forest Youth Council
The
Epping Forest Youth Council forms a group of young people working
together to change Epping Forest District for the better, by
voicing the views of young people who want to be heard, to those who
can make it happen. The Youth Council aims to give young people a
voice in this community. I feel this to be an article relevant to
the youth of Theydon Bois if you really want your voice to be heard.
Below, I have an interview with a colleague of mine on the Youth Council,
telling us about her roles, and the recent Youth Project they did
that involved Theydon Youth... Hopefully this may inspire you to join
or even just hear about other youth projects you could be involved
with in the district.
Interview
with Yasmin Levy-Miller
How
did you get to be on the Epping Forest Youth Council?
I
heard about Epping Forest Youth Council (EFYC) in assembly at school,
I thought it sounded interesting so I decided to find out some more
information. I asked my teacher for an application booklet, which
told me all the information about what being a youth councilor would
involve. I decided that it would be a good cause to dedicate my time
to. After all I am a young person living in the Epping Forest District,
the issues that effect young people affect me too.I applied and I
was lucky enough to get 'elected'. There is a section in the application
form which asks you to write down your ideas, you have for the district
and you have to write about why you would like to be a youth councilor
and why you think you would be good at the job. If you're lucky enough
to get elected then you have a commitment to serve for 2 years.
What
is your role being on the youth council? What sorts of things do you
do?
Our
role as a youth council is to find out the issues that most affect
young people in the district and try and do something about them.
It's about asking young people what they think of the area in which
we live, what they don't like, what they would like to be changed.
We have meetings once a fortnight (or more if we're working on a big
project). We've done lots of training for chairing meetings, communication
skills, team building and lots more.
Tell
us about the recent Youth project the Youth council have done...
The
two big projects that we've done as a youth council are the Youth
Conference in March 2010.We consulted with 80 year ten students about
what the main issues they faced living in Epping Forest. This day
was organized by the youth councillors, we had a quiz and even a live
debate that was streamed on the internet where we debated whether
or not the voting age should be lowered to 16.A good day was had by
all and the youth council were able to gain a true picture of the
issues that effect young people. The main issue that came out of the
day was that there was a lack of things to do in Epping Forest. This
gave us our idea for our new project. We decided to find all of the
youth centres in the area and evaluated them; we then published a
tube style map of all of the youth centres in the area. We held an
awards evening for the youth centres to commend them for the great
work they do. At the end of this project we found out that there really
us so much to do in the area-you just need to look for it.
Would
you recommend the Youth Council to other young local people? Why?
I
would definitely recommend the Youth Council to other young people.
The experience I've gained in my time so far as a youth councilor
has been invaluable. EFYC gives you skills that you will be able to
use in later life -teamwork, communication and also it really helps
you to think outside the box when we're brainstorming ideas. I've
made so many new friends through the youth council, that's definitely
one of the best bits, meeting new people. It has improved my confidence
and given me the chance to use my public speaking skills. At some
points EFYC has been hard work, like when we're finishing our projects
it can get a little stressful. But it's worth it when you've finished
a project as a team, there's a real sense of pride and satisfaction.
The Youth Council has been a really worthwhile experience and I would
recommend it to any young person who really wants to make a difference
to Epping Forest.
Here
are the Youth Maps and contact details that were created by the Youth
Council...


Explorer
Scouts and Beavers
Are
you looking for a fun new challenge? New practical skills?
Can
you volunteer some time to help young people?
The
Theydon Bois Scout Group are looking to recruit new uniformed leaders
for all sections (Beavers right through to Explorers) which will help
us offer scouting to more young people, and support our current uniformed
team. Scouting is open to all young people aged 6 to 25 of every faith
and background.
The
roles mainly involve helping to plan, prepare and run a weekly balanced
programme of activities that are appropriate to the section you work
with, usually this will be at the Headquarters in Theydon Bois, but
may be out and about especially for older section. The roles also
involve attending planning meetings and training sessions as well
as possibly helping at sleepovers/camps.
We
are looking for people who like having fun whilst being organised,
that have that can-do approach and are willing to try new activities
and help young people get the best from Scouting.
Volunteering
as a uniformed leader can be a rewarding experience and great fun
at the same time. Full training will be given appropriate to the roles
available to ensure the best possible exeperiences in scouting for
both adults and young people. Everyone helping in scout association
has to be CRB (criminal records bureau) checked and complete the first
few modules of training prior to being able to start.
If
you are interested in volunteering as a uniformed leader and think
you are able to donate some time to become part of our current team
then please contact our Group Scout Leader, Jane Ellison on 07734
791718.
If anyone wishes to join Beavers, Cubs or Scouts they should contact
Jane Ellison; jane.ellison@bt.com;
or myself Beryl Frankel beryl_frankel@yahoo.co.uk
or on tel no 01992 613029. If
you are interested in becoming an explorer or you would like more
information about the section please contact Paul Vincent on pvincent@live.co.uk
St.
Mary's Junior Church
St
Mary's Junior Church meets every Sunday at 10am apart from the first
Sunday of the month (Family Service) and school holidays. Children
from 3 years old are welcome and are invited to join in Bible stories,
craft activities and games. If you'd like more information on these
or would like to join our group, then please contact Fiona Bradley
01992 813589 or 07703 582502 or fiona.bradley1@btinternet.com
Theydon
Bois Cricket Club
If
you, or you know someone who would be interested in playing cricket
and would like to join this friendly Club, send an email to peter@tbcc.co.uk
. Further information is also available on the Club's website which
can be found at www.tbcc.co.uk

Theydon
Tennis
Hello,
my name is Victoria Bedwell and I will be reporting on what happens
at Theydon Bois Lawn Tennis Club on a monthly basis.
The
club has been running as usual and we are still at the top of our
game. With the support of our wonderful coaches and dedicated parents
and players, another year has been full of fantastic achievements
and proudness of all the goals every player has improved on and reached.
If you're interested, come down and join us! You can find us on the
Theydon Bois Lawn Tennis Club
website or email us on: enquiries@theydontennis.co.uk
or fill in a form at the club. Any queries please contact Richard
or Ian whose numbers are on the club website.

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