This week is the final week of the Autumn 2008 term of Playing for Success and to remember their time at the Saints, the children have been creating a comic strip on the computers.

Using the photographs taken of each group over the last 8 weeks, the young learners have made a comic strip using Microsoft Publisher. Firsty, a title was inserted using Wordart, which the children were able to ‘make all fancy’ by changing the font, the colour and the background  . Then six pictures were inserted along with at least two sentences of text to explain what is happening in the photo.

Remember

Presentation Evening-

Wednesday 10th December 7pm

in the

Rodber Suite, Franklins Gardens.

County Jester, Kevin Burke, has visited the Saints this week to teach the young learners circus skills.

The children have been spinning plates, balancing on stilts, tossing the diablo, juggling with balls and scarves and doing various activities with flower sticks.

There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that juggling and related activities can have a positive impact on a person’s ability to learn in a wider context. Research has confirmed that circus skills can help children with their co-ordination, concentration, balance, posture, creativity, interaction, rhythm and team work.

Today, pupils from Southbrook Junior School arrived at the Saints Study Centre for a reward day funded by Barclaycard. The young learners were rewarded for good behaviour and attendance at school.

The day commenced with photographs taken next to Bernie, the Saints mascot, and team games to get to know one another. We then went inside for a tour of the Study Centre and to be divided into two small teams ready for the first activity. While one team discovered how to make a name badge on the computers with Pete, the other team were learning about the Japanese art of paper folding, also known as origami, and producing a rugby kit with Jeanette. Forty-five minutes later the teams swapped over so they could all experience both activities. 

Lunch soon arrived and for the first time at the Saints Study Centre, the teachers at Southbrook Junior provided a buffet for the pupils as a reward for all their hard work.  Following the delicious lunch, we all walked into the stadium for a tour of the facilities. The pupils learnt about the stands, famous players, visited the changing rooms and ran out of the tunnel like Saints players. The day was then concluded with a tag rugby session on the Saints training pitches delivered by a Saints community coach.

Throughout the day, the children were accompanied by members of staff from Barclaycard who helped the young learners with the many activities.  We would like to say a big thank you to Barclaycard for making this day possible for the young people.

Saints first team players have, this week, visited the Study Centre to be interviewed by the young learners.

We have been joined by Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, James Downey, Barry Stewart, Paul Shields, Tom Smith, Stephen Myler and new signing Juandre Kruger.  The children addressed the players at the professional press conferences with a number of questions about their sporting backgrounds and their time at school. The children took notes of the answers to use later. Once the press conference was over, the children designed a player profile which contained a photograph of their player and various information about them. The players kindly signed photos for the children to take home and had a group photo taken with them too!

We would like to say a big thank you to all the players that joined us this week. The children have had a wonderful time.

This week the young learners who take part in the Playing for Success programme have completed follow up work on the stadium tour.

Using a template designed on Microsoft Publisher, the children have been producing a comic strip. Each child has learnt new skills on the computers to insert photographs taken during their tour, a title and information into a text box. Once the content had been produced, the children could then place background colours on the template.

Next week- Player Interviews