Third Form workshop led by Humanutopia

Third Form students recently participated in a Humanutopia workshop where they explored leadership, communication, and personal development. Kingston Brunson (Junior School Vice Captain) shared his experience in an insightful write-up below: 

“Recently, our school was visited by Stevie and Tomara, members of Humanutopia, an enterprise that mainly works on teaching young people like us leadership and communication skills while also providing a safe place for anyone in need of emotional support. Their workshops at schools around the country aims to make a positive change in these places through teaching how to make positive behavioural changes and self-awareness to create better social environments to allow us to feel more comfortable in school allowing us to flourish in all we pursue while feeling comfortable doing it. 

The first thing we did to step outside of our comfort zone was to talk to ten random people from our year group, many of whom I either had never spoken to or didn’t know much about. This simple exercise broke down many social barriers and allowed people who might not have spoken to each other otherwise to learn a bit about each other which made for a powerful start to what was an amazing day. 

Later on, that day Stevie and Tomara introduced us to “The ribbon of life” a ribbon metaphorically representing our life and the time we had in it, they cut off the time we would spend working, sleeping, in school etc. and by the end, the ribbon which had originally been many feet long was reduced to mere inches, they showed us this ribbon and told us it would be the time in life we would have to do whatever we want which was quite a humbling experience for us all, however this was not the end. They told us that if we pursued a job we enjoyed instead of a job that would just pay the bills then that time was added to the ribbon, and if we tried everything available to us at school then that time would be added back to the ribbon and by the end we had already gained a substantial amount of the ribbon back, an experience that made us mindful about the way and the quality of which we spend our lives. 

At the end of our Humanutopia experience we divided into groups of people that we may not have encountered at school before participating in team bonding exercises putting our leadership and communication skills to the test with the opportunity to build stronger relationships with the people in the group. 

Overall, it was a meaningful and impactful experience that brought us closer together as a year group and taught us important life lessons that we will take with us wherever we go. Through Stevie and Tomara’s guidance we learnt the importance of mental health, both ours and for the people around us, and by supporting each other, we can create a more understanding and accepting community in our school.”