The EAL group from Unity College and The Duston School who attended the summer challenge at Steelbacks returned during the October half term on Friday 30th October at the Cobblers Study Centre for a ‘top-up’ language day. There are 6 different nationalities and languages between them and they are from years 8-11. It was great to see them all again and they returned with their usual liveliness and enthusiasm! This project is funded by Northants County Council’s Race Equality Team.

Tatiana Worek from Barclaycard came to mentor for the day and was an invaluable help. She is Polish and a EAL speaker herself, which shows the children how far they can go in improving their English. She was able to translate,  offer 1-1 support and assist in all activities.

A quick game of ‘gutter ball’ to get going, then on to a speaking-based stadium tour led by centre manager Jean Limpitlaw around NTFC Sixfields Stadium. In pairs, the students listened to information about all the stadium’s rooms and facilities and prepared a short piece to camera summarizing their useage and talking about who uses them.   The groups explored the conference rooms, reception area/ticket office, police cells, Carlsberg Lounge, stands, tunnel and dugouts. They later watched the first and youth teams training. Previously, the group were offered tickets to watch NTFC play against Rochdale.

The children learnt some new vocabulary and practiced their speaking, listening and presentation skills. The task was to transfer the knowledge and information from the tour into sentences. This proved quite difficult in some cases, and some of our students overcame their fear of speaking on camera and improved their sentence structure. Others meanwhile, were only too happy to speak and turned their commentary into mini-dramas! On watching the video clips back, it was decided that everyone looked and sounded like professional TV presenters with a great deal of knowledge about Sixfields. Check out some of their videos.

Stadium orienteering came next, with pupils working in small groups to solve numeracy clues to find the right stand, row and seat number in order to collect letters. This activity required learners to use their knowledge of prepositions, directions and compass points. A previous lesson had been taught during summer school around this area, and with a quick reminder, students applied this knowledge. Using the letters to make anagrams was a follow up, and then speaking in front of the group to show how to put the various words found into a sentence.

2010’s Football World Cup in South Africa was the theme for the most exciting activity of the day. Jean showed the group a powerpoint about the World Cup (complete with African music) and asked everyone to play along and imagine they had tickets to go there. But due to very expensive flights and tickets, they would have to camp when they got to South Africa.

In two groups, the youngsters had to put up a tent, taking photos of every stage, according to the instructions. This was most amusing to watch, with some ‘expert campers’ becoming obvious immediately as well as the less experienced! As well as speaking, (English is the common language for this group) some great social skills were evident: teamwork, communication and co-operation.

Once the tents were up, and photos of each stage put into a powerpoint, both groups were asked to write their own version of the instructions according to their photos.  (Whilst sitting in their new homes!) Each student chose a photo each and wrote an explanatory sentence. Anna had asked the children to focus on some specific aspects of their writing: tenses, prepositions and time connectives. A group presentation was last, with some confident speakers. There was quite a lot of tent and camping vocabulary to incorporate too.  To see their work, visit the EAL work page.

Speed stacking was a really fun ‘brain-break’, Helena Weedon led the group through various techniques and challenges. There was a very competitive atmosphere!

The day was a great success, a great opportunity for our EAL students to experience a different sporting environment, as well as practice their English in a different way. Everyone enjoyed it and it is clear to see individual’s confidence is growing.  

Firstly I would like to thank everyone at the Study Centre, for such a warm welcome on Friday!
Comment from Barclaycard mentor:
I really enjoyed meeting and working with you all, so much so I hope I can get involved in such events in the future.
I was amazed by the confidence of all those attending this ‘top up’ language day, especially as I understood some had only been using English for no more than a few months – amazing!
I was enjoying myself so much and everyone was really getting involved that I didn’t notice how quickly the time had passed – it only goes to show, how much fun we had and how well organized the event was.
I now know, who I should contact if ever I need to put up a tent J
Meanwhile I’ll keep practicing speed stacking and hopefully be able to challenge some of you next I we meet.
In a meantime I wish you all many happy days, and I hope to see you again!
Jean, Anna – thank you very much for such positive feedback.
Kindest Regards,
Tatiana

For more about this project, visit: http://ontheroad.northantsstudycentres.org/english-as-an-additional-language/

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