Family Programme:
Children and Young People
Nova delivers a thriving youth offer to develop leadership, employability and life skills for local children and young people. We deliver activities aimed at four key age groups, offering progressive opportunities for our young people as they grow up with Nova, and our Youth Voice Group as our young leaders programme to help steer our activities and keep young people at the heart of our offer.
Family Programme:
Children and Young People
Nova delivers a thriving youth offer to develop leadership, employability and life skills for local children and young people. We deliver activities aimed at four key age groups, offering progressive opportunities for our young people as they grow up with Nova and our Youth Voice Group as our young leaders programme to help steer our activities and keeping young people at the heart of our offer.
8y
Years Experience
12
Something
50+
Young Children
Early Years (0-5 years)
With the support of parents and carers, our early years activities offer a chance to play and learn together, whilst helping to prepare our youngest children for education. Highlights have included monthly theatrical storytelling sessions with Storytime at the Lyceum Theatre, exploring how animals (and humans!) move through movement, and hands-on making with Little Movers at the Natural History Museum, and our popular book clubs for parents and carers with little readers.
Children (5-11 years)
As children grow in confidence, we offer more opportunities for them to take part independently, develop new interests and enjoy learning together as a group. Our activities support curriculum learning and unleash creativity, whilst inspiring teamwork and boosting confidence by developing independence and life skills.
Highlights have included after-school book clubs, arts, science and creative workshops, entry level coding clubs with MAMA.codes and Raspberry Pi, gardening and climbing clubs, drama workshops with West End Creative and a creative writing club that resulted in NOVANTHOLOGY, a self-published book of young people’s poetry and photography.
Young Photographers Project
The Young Photographers Project was led by a group of children aged 9–12 from families engaged with Nova, taking place monthly at the Natural History Museum from 2022 to 2024.
“We wanted to explore nature through photography, learn new skills and capture things other people might not notice.”
The group partnered with the Natural History Museum to document the redevelopment of the Museum’s new Urban Nature Gardens, uncover hidden stories in the collections, and learn directly from Museum experts. Over two years, they explored the weird and wonderful, the tiny and the enormous, the everyday and the magical sides of nature.
Through hands-on sessions, the group learnt new photographic techniques, documented natural history spaces, contributed ideas to the garden design process and created a public exhibition of their work. They also took part in naming the Museum’s new bronze dinosaur, with two young members unveiling the name, Fern, to press and VIP guests at the garden opening event.
Their photography was displayed in the Museum’s Picture Gallery, and the group were later invited, with their families, to a celebration reception at 10 Downing Street.
“The kids really enjoyed the Young Photographers Club, they felt they learnt new skills and were so proud to be exhibited in the museum.”
Young People (11–18 years)*
As young people transition into secondary school, we offer a broad programme of independent clubs, creative projects and skill-building opportunities. These activities help young people explore their interests, grow in confidence and start thinking about future pathways.
Highlights have included gardening and climbing clubs, drama workshops with West End Creative, co-creating a visitor guidebook with the Science Museum for their new Technicians Gallery and even the opportunity to spend an amazing day at Cambridge Gliding Centre, flying thousands of feet above the countryside!
Cultural Cuisine
The Cultural Cuisine group is made up of 3 young leaders, who brought accessible cooking classes to their peers, aged 11-16 from families engaged with Nova.
“We designed this project as we felt it was necessary to educate those our age about different parts of the world that they may not necessarily know about, in an environment where they could enjoy themselves and maximise the gains.”
As young people transition into secondary school, we offer a broad programme of independent clubs, creative projects and skill-building opportunities. These activities help young people explore their interests, grow in confidence and start thinking about future pathways.
The group partnered with Migrateful, a cooking charity that helps refugee chefs upskill and start their own businesses by sharing their culture through food. They provided several chefs from Congo, Afghanistan, Morocco, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Iran.
Leading an initial 4 sessions over 6 months, the project was so successful it was funded for a further 4 sessions.
“We had 72 young people join our sessions over the year and learn valuable information about other cultures. Seeing others so fascinated and intrigued during a session and learning critical skills over the year were key highlights of Cultural Cuisine.”
The group worked alongside professional chefs from different cultural backgrounds to learn how to cook authentic dishes, understand new cuisines, and gain practical kitchen experience. The group excelled at various skills.
“We learnt how to write for funding, broadened our knowledge about health and safety, managed budgeting, onboarded chefs and was able to co-facilitate cooking sessions.”
Dress Codes
A partnership with Historic Royal Palaces culminating in the first of its kind Youth Co-designed Royal Fashion Exhibition: Dress Codes at Kensington Palace. Our young people worked with industry experts to co-create interpretations of Royal Dress, Visual Media, Storytelling, Song and Music.
The programme broke down institutional and generational barriers, centring the voices of the young local community and their cultures, creating a sense of ownership and belonging to the world-renowned institution.
“The dress I designed and displayed at the exhibition, was inspired by my Moroccan culture and Vivianne Westwood.”
From ideation, learning behind the scenes of exhibitions, creative roles, researching, analysing the current royal dress collection – the group of young creative leaders dedicated their year to building the Dress Codes exhibition and embedding youth leadership into Historic Royal Palaces.
Before the exhibition opened to the public, the Dress Codes Fashion Show took place inside Kensington Palace, showcasing their brilliant designs.
“My favourite part of the project was the catwalk, it was so exciting that so many people who are in the fashion industry took time out of their day to see something that we had done.”
Photo by Historic Royal Palaces
The Dress Codes Exhibition showcased the young leaders’ fashion designs, music, visual media, interactive quizzes at Kensington Palace between March and November 2025.
“Something that I made, with my face on – is in Kensington Palace. When I was a little girl, before we migrated to London, I could have never imagined this opportunity.”
The project has inspired participants’ future aspirations and provided them with skills and confidence to achieve their creative potential.
“I learnt how to conceptualise a design and bring it to life. I learnt how to work in a creative space, how to exchange and discuss ideas…also how to become a better listener and how to network. I met so many people in the creative and fashion industry through this project!”
“Working on this project, opened my eyes to possible jobs. I didn’t know being a curator was a job and now I’m interested in that for the future.”
*Up to 25 years for young people with SEND
Young Adults (18-25 years)
To support young adults through key transitions, we offer Education to Employment sessions focused on preparing for further or higher education, training and skills for life and work. These include Living Career Library events, pathway planning, interview coaching and support with applications and CV writing.
“I enjoyed the exercise learning about my own personal strengths for employment, it really built my CV making skills. It was well explained and I am feeling more confident for the future.”
Youth Voice Group (11-16 years)*
Our Youth Voice Group act as youth advisors and young ambassadors, inspiring change whilst developing their own social action project. Our most recent cohort chose to focus on local environmental issues and you can find more about them by clicking on the button below.
*Up to 25 years for young people with SEND