Cardiff Youth Council – Page 2 – Cardiff Youth Council

Belated Update on Fayre

November 9, 2015Cardiff Youth Council

Hello again!

If some of you haven’t heard already, quite a few Saturdays ago (26th September) we held our one and only Anniversary Fair for the 60th twinning anniversary of Cardiff and our wonderful sister city Stuttgart. It had taken weeks of planning and the hard work paid off. Cardiff Youth Council volunteers were there for the duration of the fair which had started earlier than planned – from 1pm until around 4 o’clock. As Jugendrat Stuttgart and Cardiff Youth Council have been working in collaboration for a key part of this 60 year long so far twinning, we felt it was a sister city’s duty to help promote our fabulous twin.

At the fayre we had a variety of fairground type stalls:

* Name the teddy bear (with German names, of course!)

* Guess the number of sweets in the jar

* Face painting (by a very talented newly recruited member of CYC)

And on top of these very popular mini stalls, we had a German taster session in the corner, a quick fun lesson of the numbers 1-12 in German by a member of our partner organization the Cardiff-Stuttgart Association, Claudia (many thanks!!)

We saw parallels once again in our two wonderful cultures, this time in language, in an exercise that allowed people to see just how easy it is to pick in German, if only just a couple of cool words to whip out as a party trick!

For those of you who don’t know, Stuttgart is an urban city in Germany, a highly eco-friendly and green city, one that is modern and well-developed yet with much historical culture, which 10 members of CYC have been lucky enough to be flying over to see this month, finishing up this special year’s work on the 60th anniversary of twinning!

See you all on Facebook and Twitter, and in our next meeting which will take place on the 18th November!

Thanks all!

CYC

Last day! sniffle

November 1, 2015November 2, 2015Cardiff Youth Council

So for the last final time, we wake up in this wonderful city. Day 5!

After much hard work throughout our stay, we were treated to a visit to the Mercedes museum.

12194139_905768222846177_626059857_o — A bit excited, are we?

I’ll let the fabulously stylish, timeline-style museum tell you its own story! Enjoy the cars 🙂

11667003_843879259064245_524835275_n — Even the building itself was awesome to look at

Museum Collage 2 — old models v. new ones- which do you prefer?

It’s important to remember the old guys which took us around for so long before we had the very first car.

The unlimited supply of cool displays and of course, the authentic logo.

Okay I may go back on my word, I really don’t think just those pictures alone do that magnificent museum justice. Even for someone who isn’t that into cars, I still found that this was a good walk through history. You started your tour from the top of this building and moved your way down through all that’s been. Starting the journey right back to the times of horse and carriage and then all the way to an inside views of the modern race car’s highly complex engine.

Not only a fine history lesson, but also a great life lesson. The struggles that the company faced after WWII were very real and they dealt with the issues incredibly well.

All good things must come to an end, all aboard for back to Cardiff!

To round up this wonderfully eye-opening trip, I think it’s fair to say everyone had given their 100% effort throughout the trip, evident in the many sleepy heads on our journey back.

And there are a few people we must thank for this trip – our lovely youth workers and Michael for organising this trip, for keeping us fed and entertained, for showing us life in a different light in the 5 short days we spent together.

12197393_905768146179518_1709061758_o — We wore you out! Thanks Lee’s!!

Thank you Lee, Lee and Dayle for being so patient, working with us and looking after each and every one of us so well, truly guys, thank you.

Perks of traveling at dusk, you always get the great sunset!

Now safe and sound, and back from London, there’s only one thing left to say…

…peace out guys.

3 Days down, 2 more to go!

October 30, 2015November 2, 2015Cardiff Youth Council

12170365_502598826566079_705543325_n — We’ve grown fond of our adoptive pet “Ze Pug” who will be missed

We’ve passed the halfway point and we are more than halfway through our Stuttgart venture!

Saturday, ’twas the dedicated day of business whilst all others in the city took a day off and rested we powered on, of course with lots of lovely members of Jugendrat Stuttgart!

12188874_843519459100225_1242555375_n — A few CYC members fangirling over this adorable model city

And so we say hello to this lovely building again! Not to bore you guys with details of the ‘top secret’ discussions that took place that day as there will be a blog with the report of our discussions coming soon – so watch this space! But the morning essentially consisted of various different members of our delegation giving varied styled presentations, whereupon these presentations were broken up by casual (but also highly productive) discussions, where we ventured into the comparisons of our two similar yet so different cities. We ended our ‘work session’ in true politics style and signed a really very symbolic flag which was signed last by the Cardiff delegation that visited Stuttgart many years ago.

12185977_905590779530588_1769798955_o — 10 POINTS TO WHOEVER CAN TELL ME WHAT THESE ARE CALLED AND WHERE I CAN FIND THEM AGAIN! DELICIOUS!

After a few needed hours of free time within the city centre, with the entire selection of fabulously lustrous money spending opportunities at our fingertips, we regrouped and went back to the youth hostel to get ready for our final night in Stuttgart!

Let no man say we didn’t get a full view of the city; throughout the past few days we visited so many different ‘youth houses’ and experienced true life for a young German in Stuttgart, and this center was yet another fine example of how well Stuttgart’s ‘youth houses’ are working out. We enjoyed music from some close to home bands and it was a great, relaxing wind-down to the end of another busy-bee schedule!

Must be said, it really was an AWESOME atmosphere!

But from here guys, we check out for one last time in Stuttgart! Our next post shall be the last leg of our highly educational, eye-opening trip and we’ll see you on the other side!

Xinyu and CYC ^.^

4 days down, 1 to go!

Cwricwlwm Am Fywyd

October 5, 2015October 5, 2015Cardiff Youth Council

Helo pawb,

Llynedd, un o’r blaenoriaethau wnaeth ymddangos ar bleidlais “Make Your Mark” ac agenda CIC oedd “Cwriculum Am Fywyd”- olyga hyn bod nifer fawr o bobl ifanc ar draws y wlad yn teimlo nad yw’r addysg mae nhw’n derbyn yn yr ysgol yn addas i’w paratoi am yr anhawsterau bydden nhw’n cwrdd yn y “byd go iawn” ar ol gadael. Nid yn unig hwn- dydy’r cwricwlwm ddim yn cynnig y gwybodaeth a sgiliau sydd angen arnom i fyw bywydau hapus, iach nawr; mae’r pwyslais ar raddau ac arholiadau yn ologu bod pobl ifanc yn ffeindio hi yn gynyddol amhosib i ymdopi a’r straen.

Penderfynnom cynnal arolwg i ddarganfod beth oedd barn pobl ifanc am y gwersi ABCH derbynnon nhw, pa cynnwys mae nhw’n credu sydd ar goll, a pa gwelliannau hoffen nhw gweld.

Bu ymddangos canlyniadau… diddorol. Ar draws Caerdydd, wnaeth disgyblion o bob ysgol cymryd rhan, a’r peth mwyaf nodweddiadol oedd yr anghysondebau dengys yn y canlyniadau. Does dim gwir strwythr, neu cwricwlwm ar gyfer ABCH, gan olygu bod gwahaniaethau mawr mewn answadd y dysgu bu rhai yn derbyn- felly, er dywed rhai eu bod nhw’n hapus a’u gwersi, wnaeth hyn annog gwestiwn, yn enwedig pan nad oedd dros hanner yn argyhoeddiedig… a oes blant sydd yn hapus cael gwers rhydd sydd ddim yn gwneud gwahaniaeth, i wneud dim byd ynddo? Beth bynnag yw’r rhesymau, yn unfrydol gelwir pobl ifanc am wersi ar sawl pwnc sydd ar goll, yn amrywio o bynciau pwysig fel dynoliaeth, cymorth cyntaf ac ymwybyddiaeth iechyd meddylion, gwersi wedi’u cyflwyno gan arbenigwyr cymwysiedig.

Troesom y ganlyniadau pwysicaf mewn i inffograffeg (ydy, mae’n gair), ac mae’n bosib ei weld yma; Infographic_v2 (4)

Beth mae’r canlyniadau yma yn eu olygu? Ydych chi’n cytuno? Gadewch i ni wybod yn y sylwadau, neu ar Twitter, neu Facebook!

Diolch i bawb daeth i’r gyfarfod ym Medi, rhydym yn edrych ymlaen at weld chi eto yn hwyrach yn y mis!

Maegan a CIC 🙂

Curriculum For Life

October 4, 2015October 4, 2015Cardiff Youth Council

Hey everyone, happy Sunday!

Last year, one of the priorities which emerged from the Make Your Mark ballot and onto CYC’s agenda, was “Curriculum For Life”- this means that a large number of young people felt that the education they received at school wasn’t adequate in preparing them for the “real-world” challenges they would face after leaving. Not just that- the curriculum doesn’t prepare us for the challenges we face now, it fails to provide us with the skills and information we need to live happy, healthy lives; the emphasis on grades and exams is such that young people are increasingly unable to cope with the pressure.

We decided to conduct a survey on what young people thought of their PSE lessons, what content they think is missing, and how they think they could be improved.

The results were… interesting. Young people from different schools all over Cardiff took part, and the most notable thing about the results, were the inconsistencies that they showed us. There is no real structure, or any set curriculum for PSE, meaning there are huge differences in the quality of the teaching some people received- though quite a few people claimed they were happy with their PSE lessons, we question what this means when over half weren’t convinced… are some people just happy to have a free lesson which doesn’t mean anything, to do nothing in? Either way, it was unanimously agreed that there’s a lot missing from our lessons, from important topics like citizenship, first aid and mental health awareness to having a qualified specialist doing the teaching.

We turned the most important results into an infographic, which can be seen here; Infographic_v2 (4)

What do you think these results mean? Do you agree? What should be done about it? Let us know in the comments, or on Twitter, or Facebook!

Thank you to everyone who came to September’s meeting, and we’ll look forward to seeing you later this month!

Remember to share!

Mae and CYC 🙂

Make Your Mark

September 2, 2015September 2, 2015Cardiff Youth Council

Hey all!

If you’ve been to any of our events lately, or seen us around the streets of Cardiff, you may already recognise these lovely little ballot papers- you may even have filled one in for us. Which can only mean one thing- it’s time to Make Your Mark! Yearly, these ballots are released to the local youth forums around Britain by the UK Youth Parliament, meaning young people have a say in what is discussed by members of the Parliament in their annual House of Commons debate. It also decides what issues will be campaigned on across the UK. Basically, this is pretty big stuff, and takes nothing more than a tick, or a click, to complete!

The scheme is the largest youth consultation of its kind in the UK. Last year, 875,000 11-18 year olds voted, the highest number of young people ever consulted as part of the scheme. But we think we can do even better, this time, and their target is to reach out to, and collect votes from 1,000,000 young people.

Cardiff Youth Council wants to make sure that we share this enthusiasm. Last year, the votes of 2,152 people were collected, a 6.9% turn out for young people in Cardiff. We can do better than that, right!? Especially when it’s so ridiculously easy to get involved.

For those of you who haven’t had a chance to fill out a ballot yet, here’s how it works– it’s super simple! The paper consists of a choice of 10 topics, which the UK Youth Parliament identified as key issues prioritised by young people. You vote for the one that you think is the most important, the one that needs the most focus (only one, one only, such a tricky choice!) When these votes are collated and counted, the top ones will be discussed by the Youth Parliament in the House of Commons, on November 13th as part of Parliament week.

Last year, in Cardiff, the top two topics voted for were Mental health, and Curriculum for life. This was the foundation of the two successful campaigns we have been running in CYC over the last year, which we’d be happy to answer any questions about, and will talk about in further detail in future posts.

If you’d like to vote right now, click here. Forward this link to any people, groups or organisations in your network of the right age, and encourage anybody you know to take part… let’s hit that target, let’s get Cardiff’s voice heard.

Thank you to everyone who’s taking part- hopefully we’ll see you on the 23rd, where our next meeting at city hall will be held, 4:30pm, be there!

Any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch, email me at maegandaviesjohn@outlook.com, or get in touch on Twitter or Facebook! You can find out much more about Make Your Mark and the UK Youth Parliament here.

Thanks again!

Mae, Fiona and CYC 🙂