June 24th, 2009 — Daventry, PfS on the Road, transition
Year 6 children from Daventry’s primary schools (Falconers Hill, The Grange, The Abbey and Southbrook) are involved in a transition-PfS project based at William Parker and Danetre Schools. They have been taking part in some literacy, numeracy and ICT activities using sport as the context. They are also looking at themes around transition and sharing their thoughts about starting secondary school in September. The two groups are taking the opporunity to meet school pastoral staff to ask them any questions.
For the full project details and all the action, visit the transition pages:
http://ontheroad.northantsstudycentres.org/daventry-transition/
June 10th, 2009 — Corby Reads with PfS, Corby schools, NTFC
Hazel Leys joined ‘Corby Reads with PfS’ this week with year 5 and 6 classes working on their reading and football skills. For the full story, visit their page:
June 4th, 2009 — Corby Reads with PfS, Corby schools, NTFC
Year 5 children at Danesholme Junior school joined the ‘Corby Reads with PfS’ project this week with all 3 classes taking part in sports based reading activities as well as some Cobblers football coaching.
check out what they learnt on their page: http://ontheroad.northantsstudycentres.org/wp-admin/page.php?action=edit&post=386&message=4
May 23rd, 2009 — Corby Reads with PfS, Corby schools, NTFC, PfS on the Road
On Tuesday 19th May, Anna Letts, Helena Weedon and Cobblers community coach Adrian visited Kingswood secondary school as part of the ‘Corby Reads with PfS’ project. They delivered a taster day with year 8 students and brilliant HLTAs (higher level teaching assistants) Liz and Caroline.
To see what they got up to on the day, and see some of the students’ work, visit their page:
http://ontheroad.northantsstudycentres.org/wp-admin/page.php?action=edit&post=383&message=4
P= put one in the net
E= every time we score I jump for joy
T= the Posh rule the league
E= every time we win I cheer
R= running up the league
B= booting the balls in the net
O= our boys play the best
R= roaring crowed helps us win
O= one team out of a million
U= upping our game
G= great football
H= hit the net with the ball
Dylan Hunter.
April 2nd, 2009 — Corby Reads with PfS, PfS on the Road
Kingswood Primary have been the latest school to take part in ‘Corby Reads with PfS’.
Check out the project page: http://ontheroad.northantsstudycentres.org/corby-reads-with-pfs/
and click on the the school’s page.
Here’s what they had to say about their day:
I liked the ICT
I liked working with my friends and doing something different
This session was really fun
I liked it when we went outside and had to get ourselves in order without speaking
Today was enjoyable and the activities were truly fantastic overall. Especially when we watched the movie.
Today was really fun especially the first bit. (the sports anagrams)
I mostly liked getting a word and making it into other words and also writing about our senses
I loved it today
I liked everything
It was brilliant
Today was the best but I need to listen to the teachers more
I liked it when we were reading a book
It was fun and very good. I enjoyed a lot of the things we did.
I had a really nice day
It was great fun
I liked it when we were doing football
I liked it when we did ICT
I really enjoyed today because we could put our imagination into it.
It was great fun and enjoyable
Today it was fun and exciting
I just wanted to say thank you and I enjoyed today
I learnt how to tell someone’s expressions from the DVD
I liked the film ‘Bend it like Beckham’
Today was a really good day because I learnt a lot. I couldn’t answer any of the questions because I was on a sponsored silence.
I had lots of fun
Yeah, wicked, I had fun
I liked the ICT
April 2nd, 2009 — PfS on the Road, Towcester Primary, speed stacking
As it was the last week of ‘PfS on the Road’ with House Martins, Mrs Weedon set the groups a challenge of speed cup stacking. This improves hand-eye co-ordination, quick reactions and certainly gets your brain working! The children took to it straight away and after some serious practice timed themselves using the stopwatch mat. Ellie, Thomas and Rebecca were crowned king and queens of the cup stacking with the fastest times.
Participants of speed stacking stack cups in pre-determined sequences, competing against the clock or another player. Sequences are usually pyramids of three, six, or ten cups. Players of the sport say participants learn teamwork, cooperation, ambidexterity and hand-eye coordination.
To find out more about this ’sport’ visit: http://www.speedstacks.com/ and to see some crazy videos of children doing a variety of stacking tricks and skills and the world chapionships, check out utube. Or alternatively, ask Helena Weedon who is our resident expert for the study centres!
Other activities during the session included marvelling at the speed stacking DVD of the world championships, watching a few more clips of ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ DVD and discussing body language, facial expressions and football terminology. Player/team anagrams and evaluations.
Here are some of the children’s comments for their evaluations for the project. For full evaluations, visit the Towcester page.
“I like all of the games that we played outside and all the fun I had.”
“I enjoyed it because you were learning but in a different kind of way so we didn’t notice it.” Rio
“All the lessons were fun, especially the cup stacking.”
“I think it’s been fab I’ve loved every part of it, thanks.” Farren
“This was really fun and I am sorry you have to go.”
“I liked it when we went to the Saints Study Centre.”
“I liked the whole thing.”
“To sum up these lessons, I would say 10 out of 10! Miss Letts and Mrs Weedon you’re great! I’m going to miss you.” Lucy
“I liked it when we had to get rid of something in ICT, Room 101 lesson”
“I like everything because it’s fun and the two ladies are good.” Chandler
“PfS was fab. It made me learn more about sport. It was fun learning.” Ellie
“The time with Mrs Weedon and Miss Letts was fun but educational which makes it better!” Chloe B
“I love all of it except when we went to the study centre and HAD to play tag rugby.”
“It was amazing to have fun.” Thomas
“I liked it when we went outside.” Connor
“Thank you.!”
“I think we could have done more games although it was very fun.”
“I’ve enjoyed all of it because we do fun maths and ICT, it’s all good.”
“Amazing because we did normal stuff in a fun way.” Luke
“I love PfS on the Road, we learn although we don’t know we are.” Tommy
“I think we went to the ICT suite too much” Luke S
“It has been fun, especially the cup stacking and hoops.” Chloe
“I think we had a great time doing all of the activities.” Becky
“It’s fun and you don’t realise you’re learning.” Monty
“It was very fun and we did a lot of activities.” Jack
“It has been fun and I enjoyed you both teaching me that things aren’t boring.” Shannon
“I liked everything we did and there’s nothing you need to improve.” Sammy
March 27th, 2009 — PfS on the Road, Towcester Primary, saints study centre
House Martins visited the Saints Study Centre for a reward day as part of the ‘PfS on the Road’ project they have been taking part in this term at Towcester Primary School. Previously Ravens class visited and Wrens are due next month.
Activities included: rugby practical with community coach Ross Stewart, (it was freezing! Miss Lipinsky and Mr Skeers will testify this) ICT: name badges, poster of the stadium tour, stadium tour with literacy quiz and brainteaser puzzles.
It was great to see the children enjoying themselves (and funny for Anna to be there with them not in school) out of school and thanks to Pete, Vicky and Jeanette for running these days. Barclaycard supply volunteer mentors for such days too.
March 26th, 2009 — Careers, Eblo, GCSE, Thomas Becket
Wednesday 25th March 09 saw Eblo (Enterprise and Business Links organisation) running a GCSE sports careers day at Thomas Becket with year 10 students. EBLO is a predominantly public funded organisation working in Northamptonshire which helps to bring businesses and schools together to support the wide range of work-related learning (WRL) opportunities available to students. EBLO sources companies wanting to work with schools and matches them with the needs of the school.
Northants Study Centres were asked to run some workshops to demonstrate how sport can be used across the curriculum and what sports-related jobs are available working with children but not necessarily in schools or in mainstream teaching. Other workshops were run by organisations (some of which the study centres work in partnership with) like Saints RFC, Cobblers in the Community, the Army, British Cycling, University of Northampton, Moulton College and Northamptonshire County Council’s Trading Standards.
Activities included: team/player anagrams, matching sports terms and definitions, (using speaking and listening skills) literacy NTFC programme trails and players maths cards. There was plenty of teamwork, sportsmanship and co-operation required. These activities gave an example of the kind of work the centres and ‘Playing for Success’ on the Road projects do, as well as getting the students thinking about using sport and their learning in a different way.
The two groups of year 9/10 lads participated fully in all the activities and were genuinely interested in what the Study Centres do and what our jobs involve. They asked intelligent questions and were motivated by the sporting context. Next year they will begin their GCSE PE courses at the school and hopefully this day gave them an insight into sport-related careers.
Anna Letts already works with Thomas Becket running The Double Club there with Beccy Roseman. Thanks to Beccy for supporting on this day. Both this project, and others, fits in well with the school’s specialist sports college status.
For more information about the school: http://www.thomasbecket.northants.sch.uk/
March 26th, 2009 — PfS on the Road, Towcester Primary
The class watched ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ DVD and listened to famous players talking about their attitudes towards racism, their experiences of it and examples. The group then completed some literacy work on the computers outlining suggestions for how to kick racism out of professional football, school, young people’s minds and amateur football. They came up with a variety of consequences if people are heard being racist, ranging from mild to harsh.
In the playground, the group had to work together to form lines in relation to height, birthdays, house number order. Without using their voices! They developed a range of ways to communicate instead.
Dice games helped improve the chidlren’s maths and spelling skills. The groups mainly encouraged each other, whereas others needed to work on their sportmanship values! A class discussion during and after the mental maths game revealed the wide range of strategies were used. These included: partitioning, column, grid, multiplication tables, counting in beads/fingers, counting on/up methods.
Brenda Scoble from Northamptonshire County Council’s ICT in Schools team visited Towcester Primary School to see what ‘PfS on the Road’ is all about and the kind of activities we do to help boost maths, english and ICT skills. She was a very helpful mentor and the children took to her straight away.
Lewis: “The games were fun, they are educational. I improved because I got my spellings right.”
Jordan: “It was fun, it’s not stuff that we usually do. It was cold outside.”
March 20th, 2009 — PfS on the Road, Towcester Primary
House Martins had a look at photos of sports players to see what could be seen as ’success’ and what is ‘failure’ in the sporting world. Some of the photos weren’t clear cut. On the computers, the children wrote about their ideas on this subject and why they thought their photos were in either category.
After the hoop team game, they did some drama, acting our stadium scenarios. Like the other two classes, the children took to this enthusiastically with lots of different interpretations!
