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Bradford UnitedYou are in: Bradford and West Yorkshire > People > Bradford United > Beginnings and endings in Bradford Beginnings and endings in BradfordIt's been a long journey! In 2007, two groups of Bradford teenagers met for the first time as part of BBC Look North's Bradford United project. A year later, and the pressure's really been on as GCSEs loomed. Find out how they've been coping here...  The Bradford United team @ Alton Towers The idea behind Bradford United was simple - bring two very different groups of teenagers from the city together so they could find out a bit more about each other. In one group were 15-year-olds from Hanson School and in the other were 15-year-olds from Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College. Although they are not far apart on the map, 80% of the pupils at Hanson are White while at Laisterdyke 91% of pupils come from the city's Asian communities and so it is perhaps too easy to see the schools as being very different.  Exam time = Stress time! Over the past year, though, these two groups have been meeting up regularly - not only in the classroom but also to grill Bradford's MPs and to make films about what affects them as teenagers in the city. They've even found the time to just go out bowling or even for a pizza! Plenty of time to compare notes, then, and there's no better time to do that than when the dreaded exams are here. Of course, once they're over with then these Bradford teenagers have to make some big decisions about what to do next. Sammi from Laisterdyke College is one of those taking part from Laisterdyke College and she says the past few months have been a stressful time: "There's been a lot of pressure. Actually, that's an understatement. It's been really hectic. I think my family got sick of me because I've just been all moody, shouting and screaming. I've been blaming them, 'It's because of you that I can't revise!"  Sammi: "It's been really hectic!" And another member of our intrepid Bradford United team, Taheer from Laisterdyke College, admits that revising for GCSEs has been really hard work: "You get distracted a lot. People are calling you and stuff. If I'm trying to revise on the internet and I'm on e-mail then I get really distracted so it's kind of hard." The exams are also a chance for these two groups of teenagers to look forward to the future - not without some worries! Danny from Hanson School says it's an odd time: "I don't think that adulthood hits just straight away. I think it's gradual. You realise, 'I'm not a kid anymore, I'm actually a young adult!"
And one of Danny's schoolmates, Josh, agrees: "It's quite daunting that one day you've got to fend for yourself and you haven't got people to fall back on. I've already lived my childhood and now I've got to start living like an adult and start acting like one!" To try and forget all this scary stuff for a while, the two groups from Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College and Hanson School decide to leave Bradford for a day and head to Alton Towers for a bit of a break. It gives them all time to look back at what they've learned and experienced from meeting each other. These are just some of the things the gang have to say about what have been the best bits of Bradford United:  Danny: "I'm a young adult"
And with that, it's time for the two groups of Bradford teenagers to say goodbye. It's been a year with lots of new experiences for everybody concerned and now - with the GCSE results published - it's time to move on. For some, it'll be a job out there in 'the big wide world', for others it'll be even more studying for A Levels and maybe on to university. The main thing is, none of our Bradford United team really know what the future holds - and that's probably the best thing of all! From the BBC West Yorkshire Webteam and from everybody at BBC Look North, good luck to everybody who took part in Bradford United!last updated: 19/08/2008 at 11:02 SEE ALSOYou are in: Bradford and West Yorkshire > People > Bradford United > Beginnings and endings in Bradford |
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