The Diamonds Study Centre held its Presentation Evening on Monday December 8th to celebrate the end of the Autumn Term of “Playing for Success” sessions at the centre.  The sessions have been run in the evenings, at the Study Centre based at Rushden and Diamonds Football Club as part of a national government initiative with the aims being to improve the children’s standards in Numeracy, Literacy and Information Technology as well as to boost their confidence and self-esteem through the medium of “sports related” activities.  The scheme involves a partnership between the Department for Children, Schools and Families, Northamptonshire County Council and the football club and is geared towards Year 5 and Year 8 students in the year before their end of key stage tests.

The Presentation Evening for the Diamonds Study Centre was held in the Kimberley Suite at Rushden and Diamonds Football Club and the room was full to capacity as relatives and teachers watched the youngsters, aged between 9 and 14 years, being presented with their certificates by Rushden and Diamonds first team players Andy Burgess and Marcus Kelly.

The schools involved in the scheme this term have all come from the local area namely from Huxlow, Manor and Ferrers Secondary Schools in addition to the younger students from Higham Ferrers, Irthlingborough, Finedon Mulso and Great Addington Junior Schools plus members of the Kic.in2.Study project.

  Students from Higham Ferrers Junior School were presented with their certificates by Marcus Kelly.

 Students from Huxlow Science College were presented with their certificates by Andy Burgess.

Study Centre Manager Rob Jones said, “The Presentation Evening was a nice occasion for all concerned and it was pleasing to hear some of the young people talking to their teachers and families about their achievements during the course of the term and it was particulary pleasing to see two players, who were brought up in the local area and products of the clubs academy, presenting the certficates.  The youngsters have been a credit to their families and their schools and the tremendous turnout reflected the high regard shown for the Playing for Success initiative.  I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the teachers and parents for their assistance this term and to commend Rushden and Diamonds Football Club for its involvement with the local community and the support it has given to the Study Centre during this academic year. 

Helen Thompson, from Rushden and Diamonds Football Club said, “It was fantastic that so many children took part in the initiative over recent weeks and that they also attended the Presentation Evening on Monday.  The schoolchildren really do benefit from learning in a less traditional setting and we hope that the ‘Playing for Success’ sessions will motivate and spur them on to achieving higher standards.” 

Young learners at the Diamonds Study Centre have had another busy week as they took part in their last session prior to their Presentation Evening on Monday 8th December. 

This week saw year 5 pupils from HIgham Ferrers, Great Addington, Finedon Mulso and Irthlingborough Junior schools complete a club shop activity.  The young learners had great fun looking around the shop answering maths questions, deciding upon the most popular items in the shop and learning new map skills by orientating a map of the shop and placing items on the map using a key. Once back in the Study Centre they made a postcard, using the computers, about their time at the centre.

Year 8 pupils  also had a busy week producing postcards of their time at the Study Centre.  They also used their creative skills to put together a display of their work produced over the last 9 weeks.  These displays along with the year 5 displays will be available to view at the presentation evening.

Click on the link below to view one of the Yr8 postcards.

postcard-from-diamondsjf

The Diamonds Study Centre would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the young learners who have attended the centre this term for their hard work and commitment and look forward to celebrating their achievement at the presentation evening on Monday 8th December at 6pm.  

This week the year 5 students from Higham Ferrers, Great Addington, Finedon Mulso and Irthlingborough Junior schools had a chance to finish off all the work that they have been doing over the last 7 weeks in preparation for their school displays which will be on show at the Presentation Evening, in the Kimberley Suite, on Monday December 8th from 6-6.45pm.

Year 8 pupils from Ferrers Art College completed the Diamonds away trip activity.  The young learners had to imagine they were organising the accommodation, coaches, meals and entertainment for the Rushden and Diamonds team on their away trip against Weymouth FC in February. 

Year 8 pupils from Huxlow Science College interviewed RDFC first team players Sam Smith and Jake Beecroft and year 8 pupils from Manor Sports College interviewed first team players Michael Corcoran and Michael Rankine.  They then completed an interview poster based on the information that they had found out from the players.

Wow!  We have been having so much fun this week at the Study Centre as the young learners became programming technicians for Robolab!  The Robolab software allows pupils to programme a lego built buggy to follow a set of instructions and move in different directions.  The young learners took part in three challanges:

The Conference challenge - the buggy must turn exactly 360 degrees.

The Championship challenge - the buggy must be parked in the parking bay.

The Premiership challenge - the buggy must be parked in the Premiership garage.

All the young learners did fantastically with many completing all three of the challenges!  Well done to you all!

  Young learners from Great Addington and Finedon Mulso Junior school with their Robolab certificates.

  Young learners from Ferrers Art College building their buggy.

  Young learners from Huxlow Science College attempting the Premiership challenge.

Our mission statement at the Diamonds Study Centre is:

The Diamonds Study Centre, in partnership with schools and community groups, delivers exciting projects in Education, Environment, Health and Citizenship to improve the life chances of children and to raise standards in key areas.  Through an inclusive approach the Centre helps to raise young people’s motivation and confidence, by improving their personal and social skills, and attitudes towards learning.  Although access to football is for many a special ingredient, the Diamonds experience is unique in that it can be formal or informal, structured or flexible, in school or out but it is always inclusive, interactive, educational and lots of fun.

What do you think?  Do we do this?

Let us know your views by clicking on the ‘comments’ button below, or have a go at writing your own mission statement for the Study Centre based on your experience whilst here.

This week students returned to the Study Centre to continue with their Playing for Success programme after their half term break. 

We saw mixed emotions from the students this week as they displayed a combination of excitement and nervousness at interviewing Curtis Osano, Michael Corcoran, Jake Beecroft and Aynsley McDonald from Rushden and Diamonds first team, as well as prospective future stars in Lewis Hallford, Jack Higgins, Adam Sharpe and George Cox from the Rushden and Diamonds Academy. 

All the students showed great maturity when asking the players questions about themselves and the opportunity of talking to the footballers had clearly motivated the students to complete their follow up work of producing a write up of the interviews.  The interview activity and the follow up work proved to be an extremely worthwhile exercise in the improvement of their speaking, listening and writing skills in a very enjoyable way.

 Students from Higham Ferrers Junior School interview Aynsley and Lewis 

  Students from Irthlingborough Junior School interview Curtis and George

  Students ffom Ferrers Art College interview Jack and Adam.

Some comments from our young learners:

Joshua: “It was really good because it was my first time meeting the players, I was like ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it’s them’, I was really excited.”

Chelsea: “I enjoyed it because I had never met any of the players and it was really fun.”

Callum: “It was good because you got to actually get to know the players and get to know their personalities.”

Bradley:  “It was really good fun and I wish I could do it again!”

Helen Thompson, from Rushden and Diamonds Football Club said, ” We are delighted to be able to participate at our State of the Art Study Centre in this initiative again this term.  The schoolchildren really do benefit from learning in a less traditional setting and we hope that this experience will motivate and spur them on to achieving higher standards.  The children involved have told us they enjoyed it, and the players did too so a big thank you to all those involved.”

Next week:  Robolab - make and control a robot buggy using computer software!    

On Friday 24th October, 27 year 5 pupils from Stanwick Primary School were invited to take part in a Barclaycard Reward Day at the Diamonds Study Centre.  Young learners took part in making name badges and origmai football shirts, played team games, participated in a stadium tour, had a football coaching session with members of the 2nd Year Youth Team at R&DFC and finally produced a poster of their day at the Centre on the computers. 

Lots of fun was had by all the pupils and staff members and our thanks goes to the Barclaycard staff for their support and enthusiasm to get involved as mentors for the day.

Prior to the school half term break, the Centre will also be closed next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for PfS sessions.  We look forward to seeing all the students upon our return after the half term break!

This week students have been on a tour of the Nene Park Stadium.  Whilst there the young learners worked in teams to complete an orienteering activity.  This involved solving maths sums to locate nine seats in the stadium behind which were control cards with nine different letters.  They then had to solve an anagram to complete the activity.  On their return to the Study Centre, students produced a Stadium Tour poster and the year 8 students took part in a quiz about the history of RDFC. 

Next time:  Player Interviews!

This week young learners on the Playing for Success course were set a challenge to correctly place the Premier League football team club badges on a map of the United Kingdom.  Students developed their map reading skills to locate the towns and cities of the football clubs and their ICT skills to paste the club badges in the correct places. 

The young learners also tested out their maths skills in a Player Maths game.  Students had to work out the answers to sums using the Rushden and Diamonds first team player names and numbers.  Two of the Primary schools were lucky enough to have some Academy Players judging the competition!  Lots of fun was had by all!

Next week:  Stadium tours!