News Group Relaunch!

28th February, 2011 - Posted by Gavin - 2 Comments

News Group, our monthly workshop in partnership with Leith Open Space which uses drama techniques to explore current affairs, was relaunched on Saturday 26th February after a break over the Christmas period. The aim of this group is to encourage people to become active participants in current affairs instead of passive consumers.

And there was nothing passive about Saturday’s workshop! A small but committed group voted to explore the story of potential changes to student visas in the UK.

News group participants make an image of the story

As usual, the story brought up many interesting areas of discussion including immigration, the teaching of English-language, the economy and (as always!) the frustrations with the way that the story has been reported in the media.

At the end of every News Group workshop we always ask what Jo/e (an imaginary character who represents everyone in the group!) could do to actively engage with this story. The responses on Saturday were that Jo/e could:

  1. Look at the arguments for and against, and the advantages and disadvantages of, the proposed changes.
  2. Lobby their MP.
  3. Create or join a support group that helps people with visa applications.
  4. Start a scheme that will help UK lecturers who lose their jobs because of budget cuts to be able to move abroad to teach!

Whether you were at News Group on Saturday or not, it would be great to hear if you follow-up on any of these actions points or do something else.

News Group is open to everyone and no previous drama experience is required! The next News Group is on Saturday 26th March from 10am-1pm at Pilmeny Youth Centre on Buchanan Street, Leith. Please contact us if you would like to ask a question or book a place. Hopefully we will see you then to discover what News story we will explore next!

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Posted on: February 28, 2011

Filed under: News

2 Comments

sevim

February 28th, 2011 at 7:45 pm    


I really enjoyed the Saturday workshop even we were a small group I believed that we did a great job. Many thanks to Gavin and everyone in the sessison to deal with one of the hot issues in the UK. The visa issue is really important nowadays and I hope we could get attention to the topic. I will definitely attend the other sessisons as well.

Dave

February 28th, 2011 at 8:42 pm    


As usual I enjoyed the work we did, exploring the different attitudes to this important question. I saw this related article in today’s FT (I read it at work for free, btw!): http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/da7a1c16-40ec-11e0-9a37-00144feabdc0.html.

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