Peterhouse School Achieves Award at Now Festival 2024

Last month, students at Autism Initiatives’ Peterhouse School were delighted to receive an award from NOW Festival, a mental health festival in Liverpool.

Established by Merseyside Youth Association’s RAISE team, NOW 2024 marked the event’s ninth year, inviting young people to raise awareness of mental health, and convey key messages through creative arts.  This year’s theme was ‘Overcoming Adverse Childhood Experiences’, also known as ‘ACEs’. The theme aimed to highlight adversity and resilience, showcasing a range of presentations.

NOW Festival summarised:  “With an estimated 1 in 5 young people having some form of diagnosable mental distress and 1 in 8 of us living with four or more ACEs, the NOW Festival provides a platform to raise awareness, challenge stigma, and explore ways of building resilience and improving mental health.”

Peterhouse School’s entry presentation was ‘Branches’, an animation project produced by students at the school. The unique film explores the importance of having a trusted adult.

Peterhouse School shared: “Having a diagnosis of autism can heighten difficulties in establishing relationships. Our pupils have chosen to make a stop-motion animation themed around the need for a trusted adult and the importance of this for everyone.  Branches’ represents people who struggle to find their trusted person. The animation follows the story of a robin with social anxiety, who is looking for its trusted person.”

Peterhouse added: “A trusted person is chosen by the young person as a safe figure that listens without judgement, agenda or expectation, but with the sole purpose of supporting and encouraging positivity within a young person’s life.”

The arts are an integral part of learning at Peterhouse. Young people attending the school learn from specialist music, arts, design and technology teachers that embed the arts into a variety of subjects.

It’s fantastic to see Peterhouse School receive a NOW Festival award. The Autism Initiatives community are proud to see the creativity of students being recognised and would like to congratulate the school for the achievement.

To find out more about Peterhouse School, please visit the school’s website. You can also keep up with the latest news and updates by following Peterhouse School on Facebook.