Deansfield High School launch Safe Night Out Project at Oceana Nightclub in Wolverhampton
For the sixth consecutive year Deansfield High School worked with Oceana nightclub to promote creative teaching and learning. Deansfield High School, a School of Creativity and 7 other Black Country Secondary schools recently launched their annual Safe Night Out project for over 500 Year 10 pupils.
The ‘Safe Night Out Workshops’ are held in the city’s premier night club Oceana. This enables pupils to be drawn in to provocative and challenging site specific drama with a difference – the scenes which unfold on the dance floor, in the girls’ toilets and at the bar lead into facilitated discussion with experts from crime prevention, community safety and the Police. Issues such as carrying weapons, drug misuse and going home with strangers are tackled in realistic and powerful scenes acted out by a young team of professional actors.
Assistant Headteacher at Deansfield, Rachel Dickins explains “This is theatre in education for the 21st Century – it does much more than we can ever achieve in the classroom through a well established partnership with the nightclub, theatre company and Crime Reduction Team, no wonder over half the secondary schools in the city want to be part of this initiative.”
Claire Sutton, Sales manager at Oceana is keen to endorse this approach to preventative work “This is a brilliant way of bringing difficult issues to life in front of a young audience – the fact it is happening in the club makes it really exciting and authentic, we are really pleased to be partners in such a progressive and worthwhile project.”
Following the workshop sessions, on 17th December 2008, over 900 people enjoyed an amazing night of pupil led entertainment in the Ice House and Disco at Oceana night club in Wolverhampton where 154 performers presented live music and dance alongside a professional team of technicians and DJs.
Live bands played a mix of original tracks and cover versions including songs from Oasis, Duffy and a seasonal offering from Slade while six dance acts performed twice to an audience made up of teachers and parents alongside first time club-goers from year 10.
A year 11 dancer at Heath Park Enterprise College in Wolverhampton who took part said 'it was the best evening of my life'.