The past few weeks have seen this year's young puppetmakers focus on their puppets' heads, hands and feet. It's amazing how fast the characters start to come to life!

With a record number of projects to run, we needed some help in the office! We are so happy to introduce you to Janet, who joins us this month as our part-time Administrator. She is responsible for project logistics, making sure that each of our young puppetmakers has the materials they need to succeed. She has worked in administration in various organisations over, including Barnet College and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England. She has previously done some volunteer work for us and we are delighted that she wanted to join us as our administrator. She has already made a huge difference to the level of organisation of supplies in our new office!

This September sees us starting 14 new projects, which is a record for us! We're delighted to welcome back Central Primary, Beechfield Primary, Highwood Primary and Bewick Bridge Primary as partner schools, and to welcome Galleywall Primary, Springfield Primary and Flamstead Junior School for the first time! We'll be posting regular updates on our social media, or you can sign up to our newsletter to get monthly updates to your inbox.

We are delighted to announce that we have moved into our own office for the first time! The YPPT has historically been run from various people's kitchen tables, but we are now resident at Trestle Arts Base in St Albans. The building is also home to Trestle Theatre, who do mask-making and run workshops for young people in various art forms, a local radio station, lots of community arts activities and more! We are loving being there and hope to welcome visitors in soon!

The term ended with five more spectacular performances at Highwood Primary in Watford, Bewick Bridge Primary in Cambridge and De Havilland Primary in Hatfield, where our youngest ever puppeteers (aged just 8 and 9) took to the stage to perform! Again, the performances were livestreamed only, but with some improvements with our tech set-up meant that friends and families across the country could appreciate the children's incredible achievements. Amazing work all round - we're so proud of all the young performers, and wish them a lovely and restful summer holiday!

This month has seen a further three performances - one at Breachwood Green JMI and two at Mandeville Primary in St Albans. The Mandeville shows were intergenerational - the puppets were made at home by local older volunteers as a lockdown project, and were then brought to the school for the young puppeteers to use in the performances. We are very grateful to everyone from Hertfordshire Community Foundation and The Funding Network in Hertfordshire who supported these projects! You can still see the livestreams over on our YouTube channel.

Our first four performances are done! Many many congratulations to the students at Beechfield and Central Primary Schools in Watford who battled technical difficulties to pull off spectacular performances of their shows! The performances were livestreamed to YouTube for the rest of the school and parents to watch, and then made public in the evening with a YouTube Premiere, which was a huge hit with children and families alike! We are very proud of how hard the children have worked despite lockdowns and the pandemic, and the wonderful work they have produced.

Just under two weeks to go until our first shows of the year! Here's A Midsummer Night's Dream in rehearsals at Beechfield Primary School.

We're delighted to have been back in school for the past few weeks, catching up on set designs delayed by lockdown!