Growtheatre Student Placement

I am a final year childhood studies student at Sheffield Hallam. The reason for my placement at Growtheatre was to carry out research for my final project exploring the benefits and challenges of involvement in youth arts on the wellbeing and resilience of 12-17-year olds. I cannot thank Rachel and Paige enough, not only for taking time to participate in my research, but also for being so welcoming, kind, and friendly throughout the term. They have taken a genuine interest in my life and have been very supportive during my final year at university!

Although I am not a drama student, they have been considerate of my abilities and confidence with this subject, making sure that I always felt comfortable. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience of working with all 3 groups in a different setting than I have previously worked in. I particularly enjoyed going out into the woods with the Juniors, toasting marshmallows with the Intermediates and creating the props for the little mermaid performance with the Seniors. 

I would like to thank everyone in the Seniors who took the time to fill out my questionnaire, you have been a great help and provided me with some interesting findings for my project. I am absolutely gutted that I was not able to see your final performances! 

I think a group like Growtheatre  is particularly important for children and young people as they are exposed to many things that may impact on their resilience and wellbeing and my small-scale research project provides conclusions that link youth arts to positive emotions, engagement, positive relationships, meaning, accomplishment, confidence and feelings of belonging. It has been a pleasure to work with everyone and I think the creativity, imagination, improvisation skills and confidence of each child and young person that attends are very inspiring.

• Georgia