Winner from Sweden in the news!

Check out this article about Endie, winner of the special NSI 10th Anniversary Award in the international competition:

https://vartgoteborg.se/p/goteborgselev-vinnare-i-internationell-konsttavling/

NSI at the RSA

We were delighted to hold our 10th Anniversary Art Exhibition at the Royal Society of Arts in London. There were over 30 pieces of artwork by children from around the world, many of whom were able to come and take part in the event and give a presentation about their work. Click the link below to see all of the pieces of artwork included in the exhibition.

2023/24 International Competition Winners

We are delighted to announce the winners of the international competition below! Congratulations to all who won and well done to each and every young person who participated!

2024 Month of the Military Child Winners

Month of the Military Child is now in its 3rd year in the UK and it has been getting bigger and bigger each year! This year, we received entries from across the UK and from many MOD schools abroad! In the booklet below, you will find all of the winning work.

Voices of Armed Forces Children Choir Performs on BGT

The Voices of Armed Forces Children Choir is composed of 49 tri-service children, ages -18, from Plymouth to Lossiemouth and everywhere in between. Before performing in front of a live audience at the London Palladium for the BGT auditions, the young people had only rehearsed as a full group three weeks in advance!  Many of the children sing in their choir at school or just love to sing on their own. 

On the Saturday ahead of the audition in January, the children were rehearsing at the Guards’ Chapel in London, when, much to their surprise, Simon Cowell walked out and invited them to audition on BGT on Monday. The children were very excited and surprised, several of them having dreamt to perform on BGT. The rest of the weekend, they worked incredibly hard to be stage ready for the audition on Monday.

On the day of the audition, the young people performed Welcome Home to a live audience at the London Palladium and the four BGT judges. From the onset of the song, the audience was clapping and by the end of the performance, the young people were given a standing ovation. They were awarded four ‘YES’ responses from the judges.

They were then invited to perform a new song for the BGT live semi final at the Eventim Apollo. The children took part in a songwriting workshop. Songwriters, Bethzienna Williams, David Tobin and Jeff Meagan wove together all of the children's voices to create Stand Up. The kids performed their hearts out - making their friends, family and the NSI team extremely proud! While they didn’t move onto the finals, they accomplished so much and made memories to last a lifetime!

You can watch their performances here.

International Competition Winners

Drumroll please! We have now announced our international competition winners! We have been overwhelmed by the quality of the work this year – young people around the world shared the most thoughtful pieces on the theme, Life After Conflict. We saw work from over 90 countries, reflecting on conflicts which mattered to them. The work was deeply empathetic, reflecting on how challenging it can be to resume life after a conflict has happened, but that it also can afford new opportunities as well. The judges shared that this was the most difficult year for them to judge, with so many fantastic pieces of work sent in.

Each and every young person should be feeling extremely proud of themselves for being bold and entering their work into the competition and having their voices heard. All participants will be sent their digital Certificate of Commendation next week to the email they provided on their entry.

Teachers, we want to send a special thank you to you for providing the opportunity for your students to participate! You are empowering your students to use their voices – they are the future decision makers and world changers!

You can view the winners booklet here!

Voices of Armed Forces Children project Competition Winner!

In January 2021, whilst the UK was in lockdown, Never Such Innocence (NSI) organised a digital poetry workshop for service children based at Wellington Barracks in London. This was part of the charity’s Voices of Armed Forces Children project, supported by the Armed Forces Covenant. The session was led by NSI Poet in Residence & veteran Clive Sanders, who talked about the impact his own deployments had made on his family. During the workshop the young people were encouraged to share their thoughts and feelings on service life, whilst developing their creative talents in a safe and respectful environment. Tyler (11) and his sister Evie (9), wrote two powerful poems titled, A Military Child and The Other Side of a Soldier. The two pieces are deeply personal, eloquent and honest. They brilliantly capture the complexities of life as a service child.

In April 2021, Tyler was awarded first place in his age group in NSI’s international competition, being recognised out of 500 other poetry entries. In May, Tyler attended his very own awards ceremony with his family in the Office of the Major-General, located in Horse Guards. Tyler and Evie both read their poems and were awarded their certficiates by Major General C J Ghika CBE. The NSI Voices of Armed Forces Children project is invaluable to the Armed Forces community, supporting not only service members, but their spouses, children and extended family. The reach of the project stretches into schools and classrooms, giving service and civilian children the opportunity to learn about one another and grow in empathy. The mental and emotional well-being of service families is imperative to an effective Armed Forces and NSI provides an additional level of support to strengthen the Armed Forces family.

After reading what the children had created, Lieutenant General Sir Tyrone Urch KBE commented: “Young people are at the heart of the British Army family and therefore what they say really matters. I am enormously moved by the amazing poems from our young people and awestruck at how beautifully they describe their thoughts on Service life and also the pride they show being an Army child. It takes a lot of courage to share what you are thinking and how you are feeling; they should all feel very enormously proud to have created such powerful, important and honest pieces.”

To read Tyler’s winning poem, please view page 9 of our 2020/2021 Winners Booklet.

Zoom Celebrations

While we weren’t able to hold an Awards Ceremony this year, we were still able to recognise and celebrate the winners on a Zoom Celebration! We had winners from Bulgaria, Crete, England, Greece, Guatemala, New Zealand, Panama, Sri Lanka, Romania, Armenia, France, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Russia, China, Canada, Scotland, Brazil and the United States join us on the call! We had young people up at 6am! Wow!

It was an absolute delight to meet the winners and congratulate them on their pieces. The young people spoke so eloquently about their pieces and we were blown away with what they had to say. What was more exciting, was watching the winners congratulate each other! It was such a special moment!

2020/21 Competition Winners!

It is with much delight that I share our Digital Winners Booklet, for you to view the exceptional work created by the children and young people during our 2020/21 International Competition. 

This year, over 3,100 children and young people from a staggering 99 countries, territories and dependencies submitted entries into the competition. The young people spoke about a wide variety of topics and showed deep empathy and understanding of how conflict affects others. The team and judges were incredibly moved by their powerful pieces.

Teachers and parents shared lovely stories about what a positive impact participating in our competition has made on their pupils and children. One parent shared, ‘This has made my son, and teenagers like him, more aware of the conflicts taking place in our human society. This is something that no other organization or activity can provide, and it will bring a very positive effect on his growth.’ 

Most importantly, young people were thankful for the opportunity to speak about what matters to them and have their voices heard. We couldn’t be more proud of each and every one of them.

We’d also like to highlight three winners who participated in creative workshops as part of our ‘Voices of Armed Forces Children’ project. Please find their winning entries on pages 8 and 24. 

We applaud each and every winner and participant for having their voices heard!

In the Spotlight - Reading Force

We recently had the distinct privilege of having the brilliant organisation, Reading Force, share some of our Stories from the First World War book with service children - they were a huge hit! We even held a poetry workshop with some of the book recipients! We asked Reading Force’s Founder, Alison Baverstock, to share a bit about their work with service children around the UK!

‘The best thing about reading a book together is that it helped bring our family together and we all laughed and smiled.’ Jo, Forces mum

Reading Force was set up to help military families keep in touch – as an Army wife I had found it really helped our family feel connected if we shared what we were reading. We offer special reading scrapbooks which a family can share while they talk about a book. Children can include pictures and drawings and families can stick in photographs of what they read together. The scrapbook helps you keep a record of something you did together – families who have taken part tell us it makes them feel proud and is a lovely thing to keep. 

Even if you can’t be together, reading books with your family can keep you in touch. You not only share the reading experience – and being read to is relaxing – you also share time with them in between calls. You can be thinking about what each other will notice, and how they will react. 

‘You can talk about what you think will happen next and how the characters will be feeling. You can discuss how the book has changed and what your favourite parts are. It gave me something to look forward to at the end of the day.’ Jack, Forces Dad

There’s also a great feeling that comes from sharing a story you all know, and the way someone you love reads it – even if you’ve heard it lots of times before.

To register, and receive our free materials, please go to www.readingforce.org.uk 

Alison Baverstock, founder and director of Reading Force

NSI Young Ambassador Delivers Speech at German Parliament for Remembrance Day

One of our NSI young people was selected to deliver a keynote speech at the National Ceremony for German Remembrance Day on 15th of November 2020 at the Bundestag, attended by The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. Jasleen Singh, a NSI young ambassador, was invited to reflect on 75 years since the end of the Second World War, 75 years of peace and partnership in Europe, German British reconciliation and her hopes and fears for the future. Three other young people from Germany, Moldova and Israel also spoke. This was a very significant moment for Jasleen, her family and the UK as a whole. We have now established a series of bilateral seminars, initially aimed at German and UK 12-14 year olds, reflecting on past conflict and looking to a positive future. We are nurturing the next generation of thinkers, leaders and peace keepers through the arts, through cultural exchange, through dialogue and debate. Creating powerful platforms for young people to have their voices heard in the UK and more globally. 

House of Lords Special Event

NSI ambassadors with special guests and Lady Lucy french

On December 2, the Right Honorable Earl Howe, invited NSI to the marvelous River Room in the House of Lords for a special evening presenting the work of young people from around the UK. Four students who had created wonderful pieces of poetry and song for our international competition came for the event.  The work was presented to VIPs, both new to NSI and supporters from the very beginning. Molly, one of our previous winners, recited her poem Invictus Is Me. Oliver, ten years old, read the poem that he shared at our competition launch Community Roadshow in South Ribble, Stop the War. Next, Jasleen, another competition winner, wowed the crowd by reciting her poem, Indian Soldier, from memory. To close the evening, Maple from St Vincent de Paul School in London wrote a wonderful song that she sang with her dad and everyone in attendance sang along for the chorus. Following the presentations, a reception was held for all of the guests overlooking the Thames and London Eye. It was a lovely, celebratory event highlighting the accomplishments of the young people who have entered our international competition and have been ambassadors for NSI.

NSI and UK-German Connection Partner for a Workshop in Wales

In collaboration with the UK German connection, students aged 12-14 from Wales and Germany came together for a weekend of learning and fun! A series of workshops on the impact of conflict on communities were held to develop strong international bonds and create a deeper cultural understanding of people their age from other countries. The weekend was held in Llandudno, Wales and welcomed 13 students from Wales and 21 students from Germany.

The first time all of the students met, there was a clear division- German and Welsh, as would happen with any group! We went over goals for the weekend, but little did they know that Katie would be changing that dynamic very quickly! Before we invited them to dinner in the wonderful hostel we were staying in, she offered them a challenge: sit by someone who didn't speak their language and wasn't from their country. A look of fear flashed across their faces as they realised their comfort zone was about to be shaken, but, you should have heard the roar of sound as the kids chatted and got to know each other!

The next day, we started the workshops by letting the kids tell us what they wanted to “Learn, See and Do” over the weekend - by the end we accomplished most of these goals!  The first workshop looked at what the words “Conflict” and “Community” meant . The groups met within their countries and the children shared their definitions out loud.They found that they both had the same ideas and they weren’t as different as they may have initially thought. To further their cultural understanding, we created a poster where the kids could write a word they wanted to learn in the other language - trilingual learning at its best!

As a fun excursion for the young people, we went to Conwy Castle and they learned about the history of the castle from one of the Welsh teachers. The Welsh students were so excited to share their country and took the German students to a local fish and chips shop!

Hannah sharing about the history of conwy castle

Young people at the top of a tower in conwy Castle

Train ride up to the Great Orme

The next session was led by Max Dutton, a historian from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. He shared the very important work that his organisation does to commemorate service members who died during the First and Second World Wars. To further illustrate the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, we took a trip up the Great Orme  Tramway to visit a cemetery that had graves maintained by the Commission. Max showed the young people what made the headstones of the service members special and told stories about the people who were laid to rest there. When asked to reflect on what was shared, the students were able to tell the stories through poems and artwork, yet again remembering those who had fallen.

Bethzienna practicing a song with the kids

The final day culminated in a songwriting workshop with  NSI practitioner, Bethzienna Williams. The children created an amazing tri-lingual song that they performed at the end of the day. The German students worked on a verse in German, the Welsh students worked on a verse in Welsh, and together they created the chorus in the shared language of English. Hearing them sing together was a beautiful moment that showed that international cooperation is possible, even when culture and language are different.

Since returning to their schools, the young people have kept in touch with each other and have even exchanged gift boxes at Christmas. We look forward to having another event of this type where young people can have a deeper understanding of other cultures and other people.

Inter-generational Workshops with Chelsea Pensioners

young people at a workshop with chelsea pensioners.

In early October, NSI visited the Royal Hospital Chelsea and held several inter-generational poetry and songwriting workshops with local school children from Sacred Heart High School, Garden House School, Marlborough Primary School and Chelsea Pensioners. Workshops were held in the museum at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The beloved Chelsea Pensioners, in their bright red coats, shared with children about their experience with conflict. During one of the workshops, one of the Pensioners came into the room playing bagpipes. The children were so excited! Inspired by the Pensioners stories, the children created moving songs with NSI Songwriting Practitioner, Bethzienna Williams, and powerful poems with NSI Poetry Practitioner, Clive Sanders.  These wonderful pieces of work were shared in the beautiful Wren Chapel on the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. Many VIPs were present at the event, but as always, the children were the real stars of the show. Following the Community Roadshow, a reception with squash and biscuits was held in the beautiful State Apartments to celebrate the young people's accomplishments.. NSI very much looks forward to working alongside the pensioners for future events. Below is a song inspired by the Chelsea Pensioners:

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Do you know the feeling,

you’re about to go to war

From the books you’re reading

I don’t think you’re really sure

Here’s an army veteran

with so many tales in store

Do not forget,

The Chelsea Pensioners said

We were only seven

when the first bombs fell

Sacred heart school performs in the Wren chapel.

The gas masks and rations

is how it was back then

Women had to do more work

and fill in for the men

Do not forget,

The Chelsea Pensioners said

Do not forget,

The Chelsea Pensioners said