Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Campaign – Campaign Close

Our 2024–2026 CMS campaign officially ended on 25th March at Jarrow Hall, marking the end of a fantastic journey. We achieved so much together, and it was brilliant to have your continued support, from attending events and training sessions to taking part in venue tours and sharing valuable student insights. Your involvement helped shape the campaign in meaningful ways.

Young Volunteer Guide

One message came through loud and clear from your students was that they want more opportunities to volunteer but often don’t know where to find them. To tackle this, STYC created a user‑friendly Young Volunteer Guide designed to help organisations confidently welcome young volunteers. We launched the guide at our March event to show students that their voices lead directly to action. Please see attached leaflet and link to guide: southtyneside.gov.uk/youngvolunteers

Lights, Camera, Action!

To further promote the benefits of involving young volunteers, we partnered with Red Stamp Film Productions to create a short film. STYC members spent two full days on a real film set, learning about camera work, lighting, sound, and the many roles involved in production. Some even stepped in as actors and extras, see if you can spot them… https://youtu.be/XwT253rQyFA

Continued Support

Although the CMS campaign has ended, support for schools wishing to continue their cultural journey is still very much available. We’d like to introduce Ali Wilkes, the Local Cultural Education Partnership (LCEP) Coordinator. Ali works to help young people across South Tyneside engage in culture and creativity. Building on the success of our campaign, she is looking to develop a Youth Cultural Ambassadors Programme, giving young people the chance to shape, and potentially lead, creative projects based on their own interests. Ali, she will contact you directly with more information and is copied into this email, should you wish to make contact.

School Debate

We recently held another fantastic school debate on Tuesday 28th April, with over 30 students taking part. The discussion was lively, thoughtful, and full of strong ideas. All points raised are being fed back to the council’s partnership board along with suggested actions.

MYP Election and New Campaign Theme

To top off an exciting period, we also held a borough‑wide election to choose our new Member of Youth Parliament and to vote on our next campaign theme for 2026–2028. Over 5,500 young people took part, an incredible turnout!

• Lewis Morton (Harton Academy) was elected as our new MYP, receiving 1,426 votes.
• Sophia Jamesson (Whitburn Academy) was elected as Deputy MYP with 1,019 votes
• Our new campaign theme will be Crime and Safety, which received 850 votes

Award Winners!

STYC were thrilled to receive the Volunteer of the Year award at Love South Tyneside Awards. The work we do would not be possible if it wasn’t for your student’s involvement and influence on our campaigns and events. We thank you for your continued support and share this award with you!

STYC’s Volunteer Hilary

A special congratulations as well to Hilary for being named runner-up in the overall Love South Tyneside award. Her dedication and commitment clearly make a meaningful difference, and we are proud to see her acknowledged.

Crime and Safety Campaign

We had hoped to arrange one more event for your students before the end of term; however, we appreciate how busy this time of year is for both schools and our members, and we feel it would be difficult for everyone to commit. Instead, we are finalising a very short survey that we would like as many of your students as possible to complete before the end of term. Their responses will help shape our first event and guide the direction of the campaign.

Save the Date

We have a provisional date of Tuesday 13th October for our first campaign event.