Mel Carlisle, Author at Soulscape

Here’s to a great 25th year!

Mel Carlisle2024-10-17T09:52:04+00:00News|

This year, we've been marking 25 years working with schools in Berkshire. It's been great fun celebrating with our friends, supporters and neighbours all year. We have really enjoyed the birthday events from coffee to jazz, curry to quizzing, and a couple of big noisy parties! The celebrations also raised over £5,000 for Soulscape's work as we look to the future. Thank you to everybody who joined in! At the start of the year, we shared a bit about Soulscape's history and journey. We recently asked someone who was there from the beginning about her memories of how it all began. Angela Shipton recollects: "More than 25 years ago our girls were at Emmbrook school and we joined [...]

900 eleven year-olds taking the leap

Mel Carlisle2024-10-17T09:52:04+00:00News|

Mind the Gap Phase 1 complete! This year we visited a whopping 15 prmary schools to run workshops with 900 Year 6 students all about the transition to secondary school. There were a lot of fun games, of course, but also a chance for students to ask any questions they had, think through scenarios and share what they were worried or excited about. Then, we took part in Year 7 Induction Week at the three big Wokingham secondary schools. It was great to see many of the same children again. Beforehand, we had trained up a team of friendly Year 10 students to lead our sessions all about team building and how to be kind to each [...]

Supporting your child as they start secondary school

Mel Carlisle2024-10-17T09:52:05+00:00News|

For parents of Year 6 students, it's likely been a stressful time choosing, applying for and finally finding out which secondary school their children will be going to in September. Their young people will have been through some big emotions during this process and, as the summer approaches, are likely to be feeling some worries and anxieties about leaving their familiar primary school and friends and starting somewhere new and unknown. Many parents and carers would welcome a little help on how to support their children through this stage! The Soulscape team is very happy to help. Through Mind the Gap, we support thousands of Year 6 students through the transition every year, and for several years we've run very [...]

REAL relationships

Mel Carlisle2024-10-17T09:52:05+00:00News|

Last term, we were busy running REAL workshops with 13-14 year-olds at schools around the Wokingham area. In fact, we've seen over 1,200 of them! REAL (Relationships, Esteem, Aspiration, Lifestyle) supports the RSHE curriculum, which deserves to be covered in more depth. In REAL workshops, we talk about topics like what makes a good friendship or relationship, including issues around boundaries, consent and sexting - and we also explore self-esteem and identity - all things that young people want to discuss. It's all done in an engaging, interactive way of course, with games, activities, discussion and real life stories. It was great as always to hear the Year 9s share their experiences, thoughts and opinions. Here's what they thought of [...]

“I think we need more of these sessions.”

Mel Carlisle2024-10-17T09:52:05+00:00News|

When they were researching the effects of porn exposure on young people's relationships, researchers from Middlesex University concluded: “We found that children and young people need safe spaces where they can freely discuss the full range of issues related to sex, relationships and the accessibility of online porn in the digital age.” Our project, 'Object', is an innovative way of opening up discussion on this very important topic. It's something young people are desperate to talk about, but something that adults at school and home can feel out of their depth trying to address. With 'Object', we get young people's peers involved. Drama college students aged 16-19 perform a thought-provoking play for Year 10 students, and help facilitate open discussion [...]

Soulscape’s in the running for £1,500

Mel Carlisle2024-10-17T09:52:06+00:00News|

Soulscape could win a Tesco Community Grant of £1,500 if we get the most blue tokens at Tesco between January and March! We want the grant for our mentoring project. £1,500 could pay for a whole year of mentoring at one Berkshire school. That means holding weekly 1-1 sessions for selected young people for one year. How and where to vote Vote during January, February and March 2022 – as many times as you shop! Collect your blue token at the till - you can usually help yourself to one at the self-checkout. Post it into the ‘Soulscape young people’s mentoring’ box on your way out. You’ll find a Soulscape box at these two local Tesco stores: Tesco Wokingham: RG40 2NS [...]

Celebrating 25 Years

Mel Carlisle2024-10-17T09:52:06+00:00Articles, News|

This year, we’re celebrating 25 years of Soulscape! Looking back… 25 years ago, we weren’t called Soulscape – we were just a single youth worker (and then a couple more) sent by local churches to run lunchtime drop-in sessions at local schools. Even then we had a desire to create space for young people to stop, reflect, express themselves and explore life. The lunch club (‘Random’) was appreciated by schools in Wokingham and they soon shared other needs with us. It wasn’t long before we started our Mind the Gap project, helping Year 6 students with the transition to secondary school. As our vision grew, we formed the Soulscape charity, enabling us to get more projects off the ground. We were [...]

The difference a mentor makes

Mel Carlisle2024-10-17T09:52:06+00:00Articles, News|

For the past year, Soulscape has been mentoring 18 individual young people at Wokingham primary and secondary schools. Meeting for a one-to-one mentoring session each week, these young people have grown in confidence and appreciated having somebody who is simply there to listen to them – whatever’s on their mind. Our mentors are specially-trained volunteers with a great rapport with young people. Neither teacher nor parent, they can play a unique role as another trusted adult who values, accepts and invests in them. “I think it’s really important for all young people to feel they have someone they can talk to,” says one of our mentors. “Every young person deserves a champion – someone who makes time to listen to [...]

About Mel Carlisle