With the summer holiday just days away, tens of thousands of schoolchildren across Birmingham are set to be out and about looking for things to do.
| The Government are always making it educational for us. They dont care about having fun. |
Birmingham City Council has sent its Summer 2000 brochure to every school in the city and has information on hundreds more events.
But, as young journalists from Childrens Express in Birmingham found out, while the range of activities is broad, few cover the kind of things young people would really like to do. They said many were poorly publicised, brochures were uninformative, there was little planned for free and not enough for over 15s. The summer activities page on the city council website has not been up-dated since April.
And a council spokesman confirmed that children had not been consulted, saying: "Each individual department in different areas chooses activities. Children are not involved."
For next year the Childrens Express team suggested more adventurous sports, computer games competitions, clubs, cheap cinema passes and more drama. The council should also remember that summer should be as little like school as possible.
As Sam Whelan, 14, said: "The Government are always making it educational for us. They dont care about having fun."
Childrens Express thumbs up
- Fireworks Fantasia, Saturday July 29, Cannon Hill Park, 5. Sam Hunt: "Everyone loves fireworks."
- Astronomical Night, Sunday August 20, Sutton Park, free.
- BRMB Party in the Park, Monday August 28, Alexander Stadium, 10. Hannah Welsh: "Its wicked. The last one was really good."
- Childrens Play Village 2000, Cannon Hill Park, 1 per session. Tom Willshire: "Theres loads of variety for kids."
- Anne Frank exhibition, Birmingham Rep Theatre, July 3-28, free. Tom W: "Its very interesting."
Childrens Express thumbs down
- Reading relay, various libraries, free. Sam H: "Who wants to sit reading books all summer? We do enough of that at school."
- Country activities, various throughout the summer. Hannah: "Theyre all the same."
- The Box from the Sea, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, August 1 and 2, free. Lee Moran: "Listening to stories is boring."
- Connecting Threads, Museum of the Jewellery Quarter until Sunday, September 17. Gareth Jones: "Kids arent interested in museums."
- The Money Show, until Sunday, August 6, City Museum and Art Gallery. Gareth: "No offence, but its a bit boring.
About the team
This article was produced by Tom Willshire and Tom Carney, 15, Hannah Welsh, Lee Moran, and Sam Hunt, 13, and Gareth Jones, 12. A version of it was published in the Birmingham Evening Mail.
