B was a participant on a FreqOUT! ‘Transitions’ course at Quintin Kynaston School in Westminster.  B is part of the re-engagement group at QK, and has been identified as needing support to return to mainstream education.  B has told us that he has previously spent long periods excluded from education.

B’s initial approach to the course was one of interest and engagement.  He stated that he was making a conscious effort to move towards a more positive engagement with education generally, and that he saw the course as a way of continuing that effort.
During the creative writing and rehearsal stages of the course, B took quite a background role - contributing occasional ideas, but mainly allowing others to take the lead.
It was during the filming and editing stages, where there was more of a technical aspect, that B really began to take a more active role.  He was able to articulate ideas relating to camera angles and movements very clearly, and organise his peers to carry out planned shots.
Under his own initiative, during the edit, he sat alone at a workstation and edited a significant section of the film.  He also responded well to peer-group critique of his editing, which prompted him to return to the timeline and make some of the suggested changes.
At one point during the workshop B related to us that he had been engaged in an ongoing struggle to navigate a path away from negative influences in his life.  He had previously spent time excluded from education, and had subsequently gotten in to trouble with the police.  He said that at first being excluded ‘seemed like an ideal situation’ as he spent his days playing computer games and hanging out with other excluded pupils and older youths.  But gradually his days became boring and he came to realise that his horizons were becoming unavoidably narrow.  By the time we met B he had made a firm commitment to himself to leave that aspect of his life behind.
At times, certain other participants of the workshop presented very challenging behaviour and made an active effort to disrupt sessions.  B said that during these moments it was very difficult for him to maintain control of his discipline.  He said that when people started misbehaving there was a ‘strong force inside him’ that wanted to join in.  To his credit, B managed to resist these urges.  Not only was his behaviour creditable throughout the workshop, he also made an active effort to encourage others within the group to engage with the programme.
Perhaps most impressively of all, B managed to resist some persistent provocation from other group members.  When it became clear that B was getting a good deal of satisfaction and pride from his work during the filming sessions, one group member in particular decided to wind-up B verbally and attempt to sabotage his engagement with the workshop.  At one point he even squared-up to B and physically challenged him.  B did a very good job of ignoring him and remaining focused on his work.
Although B had already made a commitment to try to engage more with education, the FreqOUT! course offered him a great opportunity to put his plans in to practice and work hard on something that he found exciting and rewarding.