Week two of the Awards 4 All Summer Challenge has begun with a new group of 16 children from Bridgewater Primary School.

The youngsters began the day by making a name badge and then learning about SHAPE during a two hour “Maths is Fun” session with Sarah Mason an AST teacher from Sir Christopher Hatton School. The youngsters then made some interesting collages using their new found knowledge and skills in Shape and paper folding. 

Lunch was taken followed by an introduction to the ” I am Learning” website by Zoe where youngsters can learn and practise a variety of Key Skills through a wide range of subjects including Maths, ICT, Literacy, Geography, History etc. The group loved the website-not a sound was heard as they answered questions and played the games required to accrue points.

After lunch, Kevin Burke the County Jester taught the children a wide variety of Circus Skills including diablo, poi’s, stilt walking, plate spinning etc. The children practised their new skills with a view to performing to the rest of the group at the end of the session! Some brilliant performances at the end!!!

The final day of the Awards 4 All Summer Challenge was a Puppet Making bonanza!!! We were helped today by seven mentors from Barclaycard who had a great time making their own puppets. At the end of the day the puppets were shown off to each other and great experience was shared by all.  

A great week has been had by the group who received their folders of work to take home and back to school. They have also begun gaining accreditation for their Bronze Award for the Children’s University and were presented with their passports at the end of the day. They have all achieved 22 credits for their work during the Summer Challenge.

On the third day of the summer school, children learned how to make a photostory of their first two days in the study centre. Using the computer software, young learners worked to create a picture timeline of activities whilst adding text, music, narrations and other cool things to their story. The end product was a long video slideshow of all these specially made modified pictures. All of the end products were saved onto a memory stick for the youngsters to take home and show off to their families and their friends back at school in September.

The afternoon consisted of nothing but practical activities on the training pitches. To start off with all athletes participated in small tag rugby games including ‘grab a tag’, ‘bulldog’ and a version of touch rugby. Having warmed up, we went onto a study centre ‘kick, pass and run’ challenge. Each child participating competed for top prize and champion status! Everyone had 3 kicks, 3 passes and 2 running challenges. Scores at the end were added up to decide the winner. All children gained 100% effort marks and focus was excellent throughout.

The last practical activity was a nice laid back game of kwik cricket. Well that is what was planned!!! All the children were still full of adrenaline and each of them put their bodies in the way to ensure the ball wouldn’t go past them. When batting, every person, including the adults made sure they were not outplayed and stepped up to make it as competitive as possible.

Overall, a very physical and competitive day had by all. A morning full of creative learning and an afternoon of high competitiveness and great skill from all the young learners!

The day kicked off with an exciting Stadium Tour which the children found fascinating. The group were lucky enough to explore the stadium’s stands, and even go behind the scenes and have a sneak peak into the players’ tunnel. The children did freeze frame acting in the interview room pretending to be an interviewer with a player. Next, the children learnt some history about the Saints and the sport of rugby. Individually the children jotted all their interesting new facts down on a fun quiz sheet. The group were also privileged enough to have a look around the Home and Away changing rooms; run out of the players’ tunnel; have a look at the Mobbs Memorial, and enter the Sturtridge stand.

Following this, children were challenged to test their design technology skills where they designed and built a motorised buggy using Robo-Lab. Children had to create a two wheeled buggy that could turn a full and exact 360degree turn, encouraging them to consider mathematical estimations and angles. Extending the challenge children developed their design creating a three or four wheeled motor buggy which could race along the corridor and park directly on an A3 sheet of paper, and then parking in our Saints Robo-Lab garage. To end this great activity the children entered a grand prix racing one another.

The final activity of the day got the children’s hearts racing as they played a fantastic session of Tag Rugby. All the children got activley involved in the many activities and we saw some super skill development and impressive team work!

The children had another fantastic day and eagerly await Day 3 where they will create their own Photostory and have another great practical session.   

The Saints Study Centre and Community Department began three weeks of the Summer challenge Programme yesterday. We are running three four day programmes for children across the town aimed at building their self confidence and improving their literacy, numeracy and ICT skills through a variety of activities. This year the children are also able to acquire “credits” towards their Bronze Award with the Childrens University.

The group began their day by making a name badge using publisher. Sarah Mason, an AST Maths teacher from Sir Christopher Hatton School then delivered a two hours “Maths is fun” session in which the group learnt about shape using paper folding techniques (origami). They then had to use these shapes to produce a “montage” of shapes as shown in the photographs below.

After lunch the group were given their Children’s University “passports” for them to fill in daily in order to obtain their accreditations for each activity.

Kevin Burke, the County Jester then delivered a two hour session of Circus Skills. The group were taught many skills including diablo spinning, flower stick twirling, juggling with balls and clubs, stilt walking and plate spinning. At the end of the session all the children performed their best “circus skills” to the group.

To complete the day the group began their review of each days activities with a “postcard” of pictures from the the activities.

Todays activitiies include a stadium tour, robolab and lots of sporting activities in the afternoon!!

A small group of Year 7 and 8 students attended a 5 week programme at the Saints Study Centre with the aim of increasing their basic skills, confidence and level of engagement in school.

The staff at the centre were fantastic with the students, welcoming and friendly, helping them to feel at ease, knowledgeable, and always on hand to answer questions and offer explanations.

The combination of activities run throughout the programme challenged the students beliefs about learning and about their own capabilities. The various tasks enhanced their skills on many levels, academically, from Literacy, IT, Maths and Problem solving, as well as socially and emotionally, fostering teamwork, creativity, perseverance and self-belief.

The ‘Learning is Fun’ attitude is contagious and all of the students became more enthusiastic and more confident as the weeks progressed.

On the final day students were given the opportunity to coach Tag Rugby to younger primary age pupils, their initial fears were soon overcome, they rose to the challenge and ended the programme on a high note.

Sophie Townsend, Parent Support Advisor

During the evining of  July 7th over 400 pupils and parents gathered in the Rodber Suite at the Saints Ground to celebrate the young learners success at the Saints Study Centre.

The audience were told about the activities which the young learners had taken part in, the ethos behind Playing for Success and the partnerships between the LA, the Club and the Department of Education which make the programme so successful. Kevin Burke, the County Jester treated the audience to a demonstration of circus skills and then got some of the young learners out in front of the audience to demonstrate some of the skills which they had learnt at the Study Centre.

The young learners were then presented with the their certificates  and goody bags from the Saints Community Department by Paul Diggin and Dan Sanderson which included a Study Centre T-shirt and lots of other “Saintly momentos” . The young learners also received a “Saints medal” for the efforts-after all they have all gone that extra mile with their studies and will return to school having mastered many new skills as well as gaining in confidence during their 20+ hours at the Study Centre.

Simon de Senlis Primary School won the “Attendance Trophy” with a 97.5% attendance over the PfS programme.

A great evening was enjoyed by all!

Schools attending; Thomas Becket; St. Gregory’s Primary; Thorplands Primary; Delapre Primary; Unity College; Hunsbury Park Primary; Simon de Senlis Primary, Briar Hill Primaryand Queen Eleanor Primary Schools.