This year’s Curriculum calendar comes as a set of monthly pages, which can be printed and displayed. Inevitably, year on year, the topics recur but the youth worker’s skill at opening up discussions and activities with groups of young people can make the day or event pertinent and interesting. Make Your Bed Day in September, although American in origin, could lead to a discussion about what young people do to help around the house, whether doing more might improve relationships, how well some people sleep, whether a new mattress, a sensible winding down routine or an earlier bedtime would help. Sometimes these topics take on a life of their own and are a huge benefit to some of the participants.
Putting dates together months beforehand inevitably means that there will be inaccuracies or minimal information. Search engines are a great boon, though, and typing in “Food Allergy Week” or “Fairtrade Fortnight” will give you or your group of young people all sorts of ideas or resources.
Along with the calendar dates and the website addresses, there are the 100+ Curriculum sub-headings on the DYS website. Most of these have at least one entry at the time of writing, and the remainder will be attended to as material turns up or is recommended. In some cases, for instance on national days or weeks celebrating food (Apple Day, Big Breakfast Week, Curry Week), it would be possible to cross reference with “Nutrition & Exercise” under HEALTH, or “Catering for Yourself” under LEAVING HOME, STARTING WORK.
Other national or international days link to “Human Rights” under ENVIRONMENTAL & GLOBAL YOUTH WORK, OR “Diversity” or “Democracy” under POWER, JUSTICE & EQUALITY.
So the Calendar is a trigger to send you to search engines and the Curriculum area of the website, and if you discover new material which leads to a stimulating youth work session, please contact the worker with access to the site with your ideas or information.