The Day One Trust
The Day One Trust is the brainchild of its co-founder, Ed Butcher, who also co-founded both the East London Academy of Music (ELAM) and London Screen Academy (LSA). And a few days working with the Trust is a few days wishing that you had gone to one of their Academies.
A central aim of their work right now involves creating a vision that has the stories and ambitions of their pupils firmly at its heart. Because until then, their ideas for a central vision had been weighed down by the kind of doubts and doublethink that most adults have. That’s where Very Telling came in.
That simply meant walking around the Academies and speaking to pupils and teachers about the Academies and the Trust. It meant taking the time to listen to them talk about their work, the stuff they were creating, and what they took from being in the Trust.
These conversations were peppered with surprising thoughts and reflections, but always full of praise for the Day One Trust. Keen to capture this we developed a series of written case studies and short videos – featuring teachers and pupils – that the team at Day One Trust could use to help them agree on what their vision should be.
Their efforts to finalise a vision will take time. But our help has given the Day One Trust the content needed to really ground the future of their work in the voice of their community, staff and teachers.
To find out more about the Day One Trust, click here.
We asked Will to come in and provide us with new ideas for how we could describe our work, while putting the voice of pupils firmly at the heart of these efforts. Very quickly Will understood the obstacles we’d come up against before really speaking to our staff and pupils to find out more about them. What we got out of that work was exactly what we needed.”
– Ed Butcher, CEO
A few examples of our work with the Day One Trust.
An excerpt from Niko’s story.
I’ve known since I was 14 that I wanted to be in the film industry. …I know that if I want to make money doing what I love, this place will teach me how to get there.
Here you meet so many people with the same ambition to work in film. Those connections are amazing. Because even though the films we’re making are all so different, we find ways of helping each other.
An excerpt from Lily-May’s story.
I used to dread waking up so early when I was at secondary schools. But now, I’m excited to go in for a new day and find out what I’m learning.
There’s so much opportunity here. I never thought I’d get given this much. Because I’m literally just a normal kid, my family’s not wealthy. But I come here, and I can do all that stuff everyone else can do.