We are pleased to announce our Alternative Excellence Conference, a Taking Part conference from the Young Vic, part of Young Vic Taking Part's May Fest 2025
We are delighted to invite you to a series of inspiring workshops and a panel talk this May for our brilliant Learning colleagues working in Alternative Provision settings. Dive into the offer below and sign up using the online forms—we can’t wait to see you there.
All events are completely free, but spaces are limited—so snap up your spot soon to avoid missing out! We’ll be serving up delicious refreshments, welcoming brilliant practitioners, and packing each session with creativity, connection, and fun
... finding our way back to ourselves
... finding our way back to ourselves is a free creative workshop for teachers and support staff in Alternative Provision. Led by Kelechi Okafor, it offers space to explore how creativity can support emotional reflection and reconnect us with ourselves and our work. Rooted in care and recognition of the challenges faced in these settings, the session invites gentle exploration through creative practice.
Wednesday 7 May, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (with refreshments at 5:45 PM)
This is open to all teachers and staff working in Alternative Provision. To attend, please sign up here
Speakeasy
Speakeasy with Kat Gill will explore what our Alternative Excellence network could and should be. It will be a practical invitation to imagine and shape an arts network that serves Alternative Provision settings. Open to our network of Learning Partners, we invite you to bring your ideas, experiences, and insights to this two-hour session.
Friday 9 May, 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM (with refreshments at 5:15 PM)
This is open to teachers and staff working in Alternative Provision settings in Lambeth and Southwark and those working in other boroughs that are interested in the process. To attend, please sign up here.
Movement Break
Movement Break by Kelechi Okafor is a free body and breath workshop for teachers and support staff working in Alternative Provision. Rooted in care and recognition of the emotional demands of this work, the session offers space to reconnect, reenergise, and restore through gentle movement, breathwork, and wellness practices - supporting those who hold space for others every day.
Thursday 22 May, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (with refreshments from 5:45 PM)
This is open to all teachers and staff working in Alternative Provision. To attend, please sign up here.
Free Flow
Free Flow with Emma Dennis-Edwards in a free writing workshop for teachers and support staff working in Alternative Provision. Gain insight into how this could work in your setting and with your pupils by exploring your own creative writing.
Friday 16 May, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (with refreshments at 5:45 PM)
This is open to all teachers and staff working in Alternative Provision. To attend, please sign up here.
Panel Talk: An Artist in the Classroom: AP Edition
Join us for a conversation with Amy Smith, Director of Education for the Inclusive Education Trust and Vice President of PRUsAP; Andre Bailey, Principal of Arco Academy; Professor Helen Nicholson and Actor Nkechi Simms (Death in Paradise, Top Boy, PRU) as we explore what is unique to artists, creatives, and arts organisations; what is unique to AP settings; and what happens when we bring them together for the benefit of young people, teachers, the settings themselves, and the arts.
Friday 23 May, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (with refreshments at 5:45 PM)
This event is open to all—from teachers, support staff, and education professionals to emerging theatre-makers, established artists, and anyone interested in how the arts can support learning in Alternative Provision settings. To attend, please sign up here.
About the Alternative Excellence Conference, part of Young Vic Taking Part's May Fest 2025
The Alternative Excellence Conference is a series of workshops, and panel talk that forms part of the co-creation of Alternative Excellence—a new Taking Part network from the Young Vic, developed specifically for Alternative Provision (AP) settings in Lambeth and Southwark. Created in collaboration with AP educators and professionals, this emerging network aims to evolve into a creative hub connecting Pupil Referral Units, alternative education providers, artists, Applied Theatre practitioners, academics, and creative teams. It seeks to foster shared learning, exchange, and meaningful partnership.
Learning is our offer for all secondary schools, PRUs and AP settings in our local boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark. To find out more, take a look here.
May Fest is a Taking Part project from the Young Vic, presented by Neighbourhood Theatre Company.
Created by the Young Vic’s Neighbourhood Theatre Company, May Fest returns for 2025, it’s a week of workshops, events and experiences programmed for our local community. As the year turns from winter to spring, May Fest will celebrate the start of the new season with joy, laughter and creativity.
Free tickets for May Fest will be distributed to community networks in Lambeth and Southwark. Neighbourhood Theatre is our offer for residents of Lambeth and Southwark that are aged 25 plus. To find out more, take a look here.