Youth Related Questions
What happens to youth after they finish school?
Many students travel to College by coach and this does make after school activities harder to put on.
Youth In bishops castle go to the community
college in bishops castle, most will be there until they are 16 years of age.
Some will leave at 15, and in the ‘summer holidays’ (august) turn 16.
It is against the law for anyone under the age of 18 to not be in some sort of
education, this means that school children cant just leave to get a job like
they used to in the olden days, they have to get into college, an apprentice or
some sort of vocational study.
Normally in school the young people will be prepped with information on what
colleges are in the area, there are 5 within 40 miles of bishops castle,
Ludlow & Herefordshire college (in Ludlow)
Herefordshire & Ludlow college (in Hereford)
Hereford 6th form
Shrewsbury college
Shrewsbury 6th form
(colleges and 6th forms are different study systems in the 2 larger
areas and Ludlow and Hereford work as a team to keep their colleges open hence
the name merge)
we have recently been talking about how there isn’t really any pathway for the
young people after they leave the school, they are on their own and have no
real support other than peer support, parental and the new college/vocational
study they choose
we want to try and address this
Is there a vocational program for youth?
In the local
area, no, there used to be a college in bishops castle but the numbers where to
low to keep it open.
we don’t have many training opportunities for youth
How easy do students
find it to travel to school in particular those travelling out of
town? What are the main modes of transportation for youth?
The Community College is for ages 11-16. The catchment area is massive – stretching all the way down to Knighton some 15 miles to the south and into Wales. In fact due to issues with some of the local Welsh schools, a third of the intake of the College now comes from Wales.
See https://ccbcshropshire.com/parents/transport/ for more info on student transport at the College
Many Post 16 students have to travel to Shrewsbury, Ludlow or Hereford Colleges every day which is very hard
There is very little transport. If you look up minsterly motors 553 bus that is the bus time table for bishops castle to shrewsbury, there isn’t that many buses that run, no buses on a sunday.there isn’t a train line here(we don’t mind this as it keeps the town quiet) but there is a train line 13 miles away at a local town, craven arms, you can get trains to anywhere then, you just need a lift. You can get a train from shrewsbury, Ludlow and newtown you just need lifts or to get a bus that matches your time.
I am forever picking people up from craven arms on a Sunday or late at night as I have a car.
Is Bishop’s castle considered a safe place for youth? For example, providing a good example for the values and beliefs of the community?
I would say in general yes. Crime rates are very low here. On the other side there is little activity for the youth currently and we regard this as a priority for the town. Involving and engaging with youth and raising their expectations is vitally important. It would help to reduce the risk of drug culture and vandalism that can be the result of boredom and lack of opportunity in a small remote town.
I would say the youth have a good community strong
hold here, it will be the same group of friends for years and they will grow up
together until they leave for college and then the dynamic changes, we have no
agism here so we try to bring the youth into as much as we can and as elders we
try to teach them about responsible drinking and substance misuse but that’s on
them to follow through with the advise given.
we don’t have much policing in our town so we take it upon ourselves to teach
morals which isn’t a bad thing, it just means as a community we have to be
open, honest and transparent.
we have just got funding for a youth worker to help us with this aspect.