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.

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!

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.   Lots of fun was had by all!

Next week: Robolab - Build a lego buggy and programme it using controlled technology!

Our young learners have been working hard this week and having lots of fun completing their Club Challenge posters.  Students devised their dream team and designed a stadium for their football club as well as choosing a suitable manager, sponsor and mascot for their team.  The posters were all completed to a high standard - congratulations to you all!

A year 5 Club Challenge poster

A year 8 Club Challenge poster

We look forward to seeing you all after the half term break!

It has been another action packed week at the Study Centre this week with our three primary and three secondary schools from the Kettering area continuing with the Playing for Success programme. 

Students were set a challenge to produce their dream sports team complete with a stadium design, a sponsor, a manager and a mascot.  They also put their art skills to the test by producing creative designs for their sports kit on their origami football shirts.  Pupils learnt many new skills on the computer such as using search engines to find images of the players for their teams and year 8 pupils designed club badges incorporating the theme for their sports team using the computer.

 Next week:  Continue with the Club Challenge.

Please note there will be no sessions on Thursday 21st May due to centre staff attending the Playing for Success National Conference.

This week saw the start of the Summer term for the Playing for Success programme at Diamonds Study Centre.  3 Primary and 3 Secondary schools from the Kettering area are taking part this term in this exciting 10 week programme. 

Young learners had a tour of the Sports Centre this week as well as using the ICT equipment to make name badges.  They then learnt the art of origami by making football shirts out of folded paper.  The young learners also started their Diamonds Diaries to record their experiences of their time here.

Lots of fun was had by all and we look forward to continuing with the groups next week.

Next week: Young learners will make a start on their Club Challenge which will see them design their own stadium, choose their dream team, manager and mascot and much more!

On Tuesday 28th April, Sam Smith and Jake Beecroft attended the Reading Week which was taking place at Higham Ferrers Junior School.  Sam and Jake read extracts from story books to groups of year 4 children.  The young learners were so excited to have Sam and Jake read with them and showed great enthusiasm for the morning.

  Jake with Year 4 pupils from Higham Ferrers Junior School.

  Sam with Year 4 pupils from Higham Ferrers Junior School.

On Saturday 18th April, 5 of the Diamonds Study Centre Supporter to Reporters travelled to Leyton Orient to report on the match between Northampton Town FC and Leyton Orient.  The young reporters were able to interview both sets of fans before the match, complete match reports before and during the game and interview Northampton Town Captain Chris Doig after the match.  All of the young reporters then edited and uploaded their work on the radiowaves website.

To listen to the report by *luce and *keeptothebeat* please click here.

To listen to the half time match report by 2muchpaper and hiphoppopotomus click here.

To listen to QueenNikNaks interview with the mascots for the day click here.

  Young reporters interviewing fans from Leyton Orient.

  Interviewing the mascots for the match.

  The reporters sat in the Press balcony to report on the game.

We had a fun packed 4 days last week at the Study Centre when 6 young learners form Latimer Arts College and 6 young learners from Ferrers Arts College joined us for the Supporter to Reporter project.  S2R is a project in partnership with Radiowaves which trains young people in the skills of interviewing, reporting,  editing and uploading the finished articles to the Radiowaves website.  S2R aims to train young learners to become sports reporters for events going on in their county and nationwide with an overall aim that some of them may become young reporters at the 2012 Olympics.

On Tuesday, our S2R students spent the morning being trained on how to use the equipment and being given tips on techniques for recording Vox Pops.  In the afternoon the students went on a tour of Nene Park Stadium and conducted their first interviews with members of staff that they met during the tour.  These interviews were then edited and uploaded on to the S2RNorthampton website. 

To view Musicalgirl -x interview in the stdaium click here.

On Wednesday morning the young learners arrived at the Study Centre full of excitement and anticipation for their trip to Sky News.  This was an opportunity for the young reporters to go behind the scenes of how a television studio operates.  Our thanks goes to Jon Desborough from Sky News for the time he gave showing us around the studios and for the opportunity to speak to the floor manager and observe the gallery in action. 

To view hiphoppopotomus interview with Jon Desborough click here.

Thursday was a busy day for the reporters who were working to time deadlines to have the footage they had captured from the previous days  visit edited and uploaded by lunchtime.  They were then set a brief to interview players from both Kettering FC and R&DFC  as well as members of staff at the club in preperation for the match between R&DFC and Kettering Town on Saturday 11th April.  The young reporters showed great maturity and professionalism whilst undertaking these interviews and the amount of research they had conducted before hand was evident in the quality of their questions and their finished interviews which were uploaded to the S2RNorthampton site.

To view the *kingofcool interview with R&DFC Captain Chris Hope click here.

The highly anticipated match day finally arrived on Saturday 11th April and our reporters were given the opportunity to experience what it is like to be part of the Press team on a match day at Nene Park.  Our reporters conducted pre-match interviews with both the  Diamonds and the Kettering first team managers, conducted Vox Pops with both sets of fans before, during and after the match, produced match day reports from the stadium at half time to update fans on the action so far and saw first hand what happens in the press box during a match.  The young reporters then returned to the Study Centre where they worked on editing all of their footage and uploaded their work. 

To view a match overview from rugby_rampage and 2muchpaper click here.

The motivation from the students throughout the 4 days was amazing and the quality of their work and their professional attitude towards the project was evident throughout.  All of the young reporters were a credit to their schools, their familes and most importantly to themselves.  The Diamonds Study Centre is looking forward to working with the young reporters on other sports fixtures in the future with an aim to constantly develop their skills and knowledge of being a reporter in sports media.

Our thanks goes to Radiowaves for providing excellent trainers for the 4 days and also to Rushden and Diamonds FC for their support and co operation with arrangements for the week which allowed the reporters to gain such an invaluable experience.