Bumper school visits and events – Summer term at PIE

Summer terms are always particularly busy in the PIE school calendar, as it’s usually the ending of many of our programmes/projects, transition events galore and when most of the exciting whole school events take place. This year has been no different and Munji is going to give us a run through of everything that has taken place in schools during June and July!

Leeds Positivity PIE trip to Manchester

The Year 7 girls from Coop Academy Leeds had their long-awaited rewards trip to Manchester, which they helped organise and arrange. We have been working with this group since October 2024 and seeing their growth and development over the year has been so lovely.

The girls chose to visit Manchester’s Trafford Centre during their visit. So, after a quick journey on the train from Leeds (a first for many of these young people!), we hopped onto the tram towards the Trafford Centre. Our first stop was Primark – one of the main request from the girls at the planning stage of this trip. After this we head to King Pins for bowling. For many of the group this was their first time trying bowling and they were naturally very good at it – it was great to see them unlock a new hobby/skill! For lunch, we headed to Pizza Hut buffet with the infamous Ice Cream Factory  where the girls enjoyed unlimited pizza before heading back to Leeds with very full bellies!

We had a great day as a group and I hope this visit inspired them to visit Manchester independently!

Unity Transition

Our transition day at Unity is always a highlight in the PIE diary, it’s always great to meet the new cohort of students before they start in Year 7! This year’s group were full of ideas and creativity whilst working together with their peers really well.

Myself and Ciara led a branding workshop for these students, where they were tasked with branding their year group. They rose to the challenge and created some fantastic designs! We can’t wait to hear how they get on in September!

Diversity Day at Rayner Stephens

I have been working closely with Rayner Stephens since the beginning of 2025 to plan and deliver their annual Diversity Day. After launching last year, it was evident that the students wanted it to be bigger and better this year – so a steering group came together to ensure that the day was student-led and purposeful.

The day was a HUGE success and the cultural capital and opportunities given to students in the day was definitely something to be proud of. Here is an overview of what each year group got to experience:

Year 7

Year 7 had a mix of creative, physical and thought provoking workshops. They considered the media and cultural bias with Sally McFerran, focusing on diversity and how it can be portrayed negatively in society. They learnt about the role of carnival worldwide and had a go at making their own carnival marks – there were feathers everywhere! Finally, they had a martial arts taster with KMMA Freestyle Martial Arts – where they all got stuck in despite the 30 degree heat!

Year 8

Year 8s had a day jam packed with a variety of activities. They took part in a weaving workshop with Jen Samani from Make Good, which was such a mindful and calming activity for them. They had the opportunity to do some food tasting and rate lunches from different parts of the world – apparently pani puri is a hit at Rayner Stephens! Their final workshop was music-based and delivery by Global Grooves.

Year 9

During the day, each class in Year 9 was given the opportunity to participate in creating a community mural to represent themselves and their peers. They also took part in a drumming workshop with Drumroots which had overwhelmingly positive feedback! To end the day they observed a panel discussion (like Year 10) and their maturity during this was really evident!

Year 10

Year 10 were given more choice and autonomy over their day as a nod of recognition to their maturity as the oldest in the school. They were able to choose from the following workshops based on their personal interests: Calligraphy with the Manchester Chinese Society, Manga drawing with James from Crazy Comic Club, Discussions surrounding crossing the border with S-Rep and Print making with Alison from Explore Make Create.

If this wasn’t enough – they then had the opportunity to take part in an EDI panel where there were a variety of visitors from the local community, including ex students! To finish the day they had priority access to the after school events!

A big thank you to all of our external providers for facilitating an incredible day for these young people. It truly was something special!

Hate Crime Events

As part of their Hate Crime programme, both groups planned an in school event to raise awareness of their campaign and issue they were focusing on. Hate Crime is often a difficult topic to get young people to engage with, but they both did an excellent job and created a safe space for some great discussions!

TEMA

The group at TEMA planned some outdoor activities where they encouraged young people to test their knowledge of hate crime with some fun activities! They were blessed with the weather and had a good turnout for them to showcase their campaign.

They also planned an ‘Upstanders Workshop’ where they intended to train students up to feel confident in dealing with situations that could be considered a hate crime. They had created an application form for students to sign up to take part, with 20 spaces to fill they received over 90 applications! This was a really clever idea to engage their peers and it worked really well!

Burnage

The Burnage group focused their campaign on misogyny and Hate Crimes against women, which can be a difficult topic to engage teenage boys! They held a lunch time event which focused on using games, competitions and rewards to engage their peers. Armed with reems of questions and facts about hate crimes against women – the group filled the sports hall with students discussing hate crime, for a chance to win a reward. It was a great turn out and the group showed excellent team work to make their ideas come into fruition.

Fairfest 

The whole of Fairfield High School for Girls took part in a fantastic drop-down day on their last week before the summer holidays! It was a brilliant opportunity for students to celebrate their school, explore different aspects of wellbeing, and challenge themselves by trying something new.

With eight exciting activity options to choose from – delivered by both local providers and in-house staff – there truly was something for everyone. During the challenge period, pupils had the chance to try a brand-new activity such as rock climbing, archery, fencing, mindful crafts, and many more. Throughout the day, all year groups got the chance to do an interform challenge with an inflatable obstacle course and listen to an inspirational talk from a former Olympian. The atmosphere was buzzing with energy as students pushed themselves out of their comfort zones and discovered new skills.

The day ended on a high note, with the whole school gathering on the field to enjoy incredible performances from the school choir, the band, and even the much-loved teacher band – the perfect way to wrap up the day!  

Coop Academy Leeds take Scarborough

To end our year working with Coop Academy Leeds we organised a rewards trip for selected students to the seaside town of Scarborough – where they will luckily blessed with beautiful weather!

Following a short journey on the train, they left the hustle and bustle of city life and were exposed to the salty Scarborough air. We started off with a go on the Ferris Wheel where the students got to see a birds eye view of the sea and it’s surroundings – with many never having been on a Ferris Wheel before it was slightly daunting but they managed the challenge well! After this, we went on a short boat ride around the bay to see the town from a different perspective and see if we could spot any seals – unfortunately we didn’t, but we did hear talk of dolphins!

Back on land, the group had some free time on the beach where they had the opportunity to go in the sea, play some beach games or just sit and relax to enjoy the environment. This was the calm before the lunchtime swarm of seagulls clearly saw the group as an easy target, they must have smelt the city vibes of Leeds on them!

After a slightly hurried and dramatic lunch, we began to make our way towards the train station stopping off for some souvenirs on the way. Where I got them all a seagull keyring as a reminder of our lunchtime laughs!

They were impeccably behaved and so grateful for the day they got to experience, an absolute joy of a group!

Year 8 Unity Academy Blackpool goes to Manchester

Our final trip of the Summer term was with our lovely students from Unity Academy. To mark the end of their Y8 This Matters programme, we took 30 of them on a rewards trip into Manchester.

As we walked through the City Centre, for some of them this was a whole new experience having never visited Manchester before. The amount of shops and people were a little overwhelming, however they really enjoyed seeing new places. We headed to King Pins where the group played bowling. It was so lovely to see them having fun and relaxing with their peers! During this there was a high demand for slushies, I did feel some sympathy for the slushy machine that had to churn these 30 slushies out! Following bowling, we headed to mini golf in the complex for them to show us their skills! Before heading to lunch, there was no way the group were going to pass up the opportunity of a photo booth so all the groups had a go at their best poses!

After our games, the group headed to get their souvenirs before lunch. There was a mix of Korean noodles, keyrings, teddies, American sweets and magnets in their baskets! Lunch was at the ever-popular Nell’s pizza at Kampus – they’re always so accommodating of school groups and do the BEST and most humongous pizzas. As expected, they definitely couldn’t finish the entire pizza and here were a lot of takeaway boxes being ordered for train snacks or dinner later on!

Heading back to the train station, the students got the full Manchester experience by having to walk to the infamous Platform 13 in Manchester Piccadilly. They had a really fun day and were an absolute delight to show round Manchester!