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Schools' Hub
Being a Boy
Being a Boy
At AUB, we believe that opportunities to engage with creative subjects and explore new art forms should be available to everyone. We also recognise the power of creativity as a tool to engage in conversations about important issues that affect our lives.
The Being a Boy project, launched in 2022, is a brand-new initiative which provides space for young men to creatively engage with the role of masculinity in their day-to-day lives.
The project has received recognition in the sector as an example of best practice. Winning the HELOA (Higher Education Liaison Officers Association) Best Practice Outreach and Recruitment Award, and HELOA Best Practice Collaboration Award in January 2023. Read more about the HELOA Award wins. Being a Boy was also a Silver Award Winner for Best Widening Participation Initiative at the 2023 HEIST Awards. Read more about AUB’s HEIST Award wins in July 2023.
The Being a Boy project
The Being a Boy project provides a number of fully funded places on selected workshops that explore the themes of masculinity and identity. They provide a creative channel for participants to reflect on what being a young man means and their own lived experiences. The workshops are an innovative mechanism to conduct an exploration of the possible implications for boys’ future health, happiness and educational success.
The 2024 workshop series will be released in February 2024 at the Being a Boy 2023 celebration event (details to be confirmed).
The Being a Boy workshop places are available to young people living permanently in England. To be eligible for participation in one or more of the workshops, attendees must be studying in either KS3 or KS4 (aged 12-16) and identify as boys.
Participants must also meet at least one of the following eligibility criteria:
- Received Free School Meals at any point during your school studies
- Been in local authority care or looked after for three months or more OR are estranged from your family
- Are a Young Carer
- From a Gypsy, Roma, Traveller, Showman, or Boater community
- Have a parent who has served, or is currently serving, in the armed forces
- Are currently studying at an Alternative Provision
- Current home postcode shows that you live in an area with low levels of progression to Higher Education. (Postcodes within the lowest two POLAR4 quintiles)
- Current home postcode shows that you live in an area that falls within the lowest 20% of the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD).
Please check your eligibility for the POLAR4 measure (Postcodes in the lowest two POLAR4 quintiles qualify) and eligibility for the IMD measure (Postcodes in the lowest two deciles qualify).
Being a Boy videos
Watch our How to Be a Boy documentary to see participants of the Empower workshop creative writing successes. Meanwhile, Beneath the Surface shows a participant's continued exploration of dance after taking part in Lift Off workshop.
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Accept to view2024 Workshop series
We'll be running various workshops from May to July 2024. Full details regarding these will be released in February at the Being a Boy 2023 celebration event.
Previous workshops and events
Read through our previous workshops and events to get a feel for what we've been up to.
This workshop introduced participants to the skateboard as a canvas for exciting graphic statements, integrating illustration with movement and risk.
Back for a second year, focusing on key elements of contemporary dance: physicality, strength, trust and working collaboratively to create adaptable artists.
Back for a second year, participants explored photography as a new platform to tell their stories.
Based at AUB’s Palace Court Theatre, this workshop led by Dan Boyden, an experienced theatre maker and social development expert who's worked in a variety of criminal justice and community settings throughout the UK, working with men to explore new and alternative ways of ‘being a man’.
A Fashion Branding and Communication workshop introducing participants to new ways of seeing, reflection on their own tastes, and new recipes for self-expression.
Back for a second year, author Ashley Hickson-Lovence returned to guide participants through an exploration of written and spoken word.
In celebration of Being a Boy participants, the How to be a Boy documentary premiered at Pavilion Dance South West, following the young men as they participated in the Empower 2022 creative writing workshop.
Also celebrated at the event was successes and experiences the boys that participated in the Capture and Lift Off workshops including poetry readings and showing of Beneath the Surface.
Hosted in partnership with University of Portsmouth and University of Winchester, the widening participation research and practice conference explored how we can better support working-class boys’ educational attainment and progression to Higher Education.
The one-day conference at AUB, brought together practitioners and researchers from 55 institutions and provided a space to disseminate research and learn from evidence-based practice. The conference included esteemed speakers Professor Nicola Ingram, Taking Boys Seriously, and Future Men.
Participants explored a range of different themes working towards creating a final piece that explores the challenges of Being a Boy in the post-pandemic world.
This workshop had a strong focus on key elements of contemporary dance: physicality, strength, trust and working collaboratively to create adaptable artists.
BBC Radio Solent covered the Being a Boy Lift Off Workshop, which included interviews with two of the participants.
Working in the Commercial Photography studios participants created a series of photographs, exploring past, present and future selves.
Claire Barnett, art and photography teacher at The Quay School said, “Ideas were ignited, and quality work was produced as a result of purposeful and thought-provoking activities.”
Led by experienced facilitator and author of the 392 and Your Show, Ashley Hickson-Lovence. The workshop explored what it means to be a boy, through confident, bold and thought-provoking written and spoken poetry and lyrics.
Irene Smith, CIAG Lead at Iford Academy said, “What an amazing day when confidence was grown in abundance!"
This three-hour workshop looked at methods and storytelling devices involved in the development of documentary projects, including the How to Be a Boy Documentary. The exploration encouraged the group to explore distinctive voices in the making of documentaries, which are shaped by our own personal experiences but that can also reflect the forces that shape the world we live in.