How the LHM Open Day 2012 went down.

Stephen Ayres is one of LHM's volunteers, working as a youth leader at our Open Day. He enjoyed last year's event so much that he thought he'd write an article about it. Our next Open Day is coming up on Saturday 2nd March, so why miss out?

Hi everybody, Stevie from the Open Day here. I met Jon in my halls at university and I live with him now. He had talked about LHM a lot since I'd met him and when he invited me to get involved with the open day, I was really keen to, especially after meeting the other volunteers.

I've been mentoring school pupils while at university, which has made me realise that I'd love to be a teacher, and the open day added to this feeling - although I don't think most kids would be as nice and polite! I thought that it would take a little while for everyone to get to know each other but new friends were made as soon as people began to arrive.

Rumours that Jon was going to dress up as a clown for everyone were sadly not true, but he did bring along some aubergines which helped everyone to learn some new names as we tried to put them back together. Our group even gave ours a nice new face.

The main aim of the day was to talk about bullying, and to put together some short plays involving a boy or girl dealing with bullies. I was in charge of the 10 and 11 year old group and the only problem was cutting down so many good ideas into a short play - I'm sure that was the same for everyone.

We were all a bit nervous when hundreds of parents came in to watch but every group did a great job - I think we discovered some hidden acting and directing talent. I'm sure anyone who saw the plays would agree that our group had the best dance moves as well!

“I thought that it would take a little while for everyone to get to know each other, but new friends were made as soon as people began to arrive”

As well as meeting lots of new people and putting on three great plays, everyone learnt some really important lessons about bullying and how to stop it. We had a great session with John from ChildLine and some group discussions about bullying and heart conditions. It was good for everyone to learn ways of dealing with the problems, whether they're over the internet, face to face at school or anywhere else.

If you came and made new friends, I hope that you are able to keep in touch through LHM. I’m sure that you could email Jon - jon@lhm.org.uk - if you’d like to get in touch with someone from the Open Day. Sadly, I'll be away for next year's event, but I look forward to coming back some time and meeting up with all of you, who made the day such good fun!