Since the beginning of 2006 ncounter has been working in secondary schools through a full time, professional band called Collective. With creative direction from Innervation (the Manchester-based organisation best known for thebandwithnoname), our standards are high and feedback from schools is extremely positive.
The “start” programme aims to help local churches and organisations to strengthen existing links or develop new connections with the local secondary schools in their area. Collective can offer a full timetable of assemblies, RE, PSHE and other lessons to the school. A “start” week is available in any part of the South West region.
Spending a week in a school will enable students to get to know Collective and throughout the week Collective will use their music and dance to help young people to explore positive life choices, to understand Christian faith, and to help discover and develop their own talents. The “start” week will finish with a concert, held outside school hours and usually on Friday evening in the main school hall. This will be a full evening concert, giving the band an opportunity to perform a full evening's programme and say thankyou for engaging with the week. A short talk from the band members will give young people a chance to engage with faith in a safe and relevant environment.
Collective will bring their own sound equipment and sound engineer. For the evening concert we also provide lighting and video.
What's involved?
We envisage a start programme will include 5 main stages;
- initial contact with the school, usually via local churches/organisations.
- agreement of a start week with dates.
- ncounter meet directly with the school to finalise the timetable, preferably face to face or if necessary by phone.
- local churches/organisations decide on the followup work to be promoted, which will ideally include the possibility of unchurched young people exploring faith in a culturally relevant setting.
- start week, including links to the local faith communities as appropriate
What's the cost?
The local church, organisation or school will be asked to cover our travelling costs, and the cost of equipment hire and transportation for the Friday evening concert. Ncounter will cover the cost of the band, sound engineer and sound equipment (approx. £500), and would welcome contributions towards this. We can advise on the total cost to the local partner once we have a definite school in mind. We may also need accommodation and meals for 5 people for the week, arriving on the Sunday before the schools week starts, and departing on the Saturday morning following a Friday evening concert.
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