Young Voices 2023 Final Arrangements – Tuesday 10th January 2023
Dear Parents/Carers,
The concert is only days away, so here are further details for you.
Timings
We will be leaving school at 10.30am and travelling by coach to the NEC Arena, Birmingham, to arrive by 1.30pm. The children will take part in a rehearsal at 2.15pm. We have a meal break between 5pm & 6pm. The concert starts at 7pm and finishes at 9.15pm. We envisage we will be back at school for a pick up at 12.00am (midnight).
Coach Travel
Children can take something to occupy them on the coach journey such as colouring books & pencils, a reading book etc. No electronic gadgets or mobile phones please. Any items should be small and fit into their backpack. We do not allow sweets or snacks on the coach journey and would ask you not to pack these for your children.
Many children sleep on the way home, so a small pillow makes this more comfortable if they want to bring one.
If your child is prone to travel sickness we will administer travel sickness tablets. These should be handed into the school office on the morning of the trip and must be in a new, sealed original box. We will administer tablets for both the outgoing and return journey. We require a medication form to be completed for the administering of these, a form is attached for anyone who needs one.
We are not aware of any other medication (other than those already held by the school) for any child attending. If your child has regular medication that is normally taken between 3.30pm & midnight please contact the school office by 4pm on Friday 6th to discuss this further.
Meals
On the way to Birmingham, we will be stopping at Strensham Service, M5 Northbound, to have lunch at McDonalds. We will take the children’s food orders on Monday. If you have not ordered a meal for your child, they will need to bring a packed lunch for this meal.
Children will need to bring a suitably filling packed tea in addition to the above (no glass bottles, fizzy drinks, nuts or nut products please). There will be a break between 5pm and 6pm where the children can eat this. Please provide a large drink with this meal.
In addition, children should have a refillable water bottle as they get very thirsty throughout the day.
Clothing
The children should come to school wearing black trousers or full length leggings (no skirts or jogging bottoms please) and their usual white polo shirt & school logo jumper/cardigan. Dark charcoal school trousers are fine. Children should wear their normal black school shoes please and will need a coat. They shouldn’t bring any other belongings other than their food and drinks. No mobile phones please.
We will issue Young Voices t-shirts, if you purchased one for your child, on the morning of the concert. Torches are given out at the beginning of the concert.
Supervision
The children are continually supervised by staff on a 1-9 ratio. Other than within the venue, children will be wearing hi-vis vests. Visits to the toilets are only allowed in groups of five or less and will be accompanied by an adult.
Charity Collection
As in previous years, the event is in aid of the FairShare Charity, which is a foodbank charity supporting local causes. We would like each child to bring one non-perishable item of food to donate to the charity. This is a voluntary contribution and is not essential.
Communication
We will give travel updates to the mobile number you provided via Teachers2Parents. We will upload photos during the day for you to see and these will be available via the Twitter account; YV2023@UVAYoungVoices
This is a closed account and only those accepted can gain access to see the tweets. Some of our parents, whose children attended previously, will already have access to the account. If you wish to gain access, please go to Twitter, search our handle and request to follow us. We will be accepting parents over the next few days. Please be aware this will only be open to parents, no other family members.
Collection at the Event (for those parents attending)
We have a list of parents who have ordered tickets through ourselves and will be attending the concert. However, if you are attending the concert and have purchased your tickets directly from the box office, please let the school office know asap.
Those who have purchased tickets from the school must have the paper copy with them to be able to access the concert. If you cannot locate your tickets, we can print off another copy for you, but this must be done by mid day on Monday 9th.
Children can be collected from the concert venue at the end of the concert (approx. 9.15pm). Please be aware, due to the number of parents attending the concert we cannot hand over the children in the coach area, as we have in previous years.
This year we will need to use the child collection area in the lobby of the main arena. The official collection point is very busy with over 8,000 people attempting to exit the arena. For the safety of the children, we will split the group into those travelling home by coach and those being collected. The coach group will be escorted by three members of staff to the coach; those children being collected will wait in the child collection point (shown on the map) with two members of staff. It is imperative that the group is split correctly, therefore those parents ATTENDING THE CONCERT should email the office [email protected] to confirm your child is being collected by yourself. If you do not inform us, we will bring your child home on the coach and you will need to collect from school.
Please collect promptly to allow the staff to return to the coach as soon as possible to return home.
Collection from School
We will arrive back to school between 11.30pm & midnight. We will text when we leave the venue and again when we are 15 minutes away from the school. The telephone number you provided at the time of booking is the number we will use for communications – please ensure you have reception for this phone to pick up messages. Please arrive promptly for collection.
Next Day
Although it is a late arrival back, we are expecting all children to come to school for the full day on the Wednesday (11th). Arrival time is 8.35am.
We are looking forward to a fantastic event that the children will remember and cherish for many years to come.
With regards
The Young Voices Team
