The Diamonds Study Centre held its Presentation Evening on Wednesday 31st March to celebrate the end of the Spring 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 which aims to improve the student’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. There are currently 163 centres, representing nineteen different sports, based at professional sports clubs across the country.

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 & Diamonds Academy Players Morgan Phillips and James Boadbent.

The schools involved in the scheme this term have all come from the Wellingborough area namely from Christopher Hatton and Weavers Secondary School in addition to the younger students from Oakway, Warwick and Victoria Primary Schools.

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. 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 of 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 continuing support which it has given to the Study Centre during this academic term.”  

Tonights Presentation Evening for all the young learners that took part in the Playing for Success programme will take place tonight in the Kimberley Suite (main building) from 5.30pm – 6pm.  This is a great opportunity for relatives and teachers alike to celebrate the success of these young people.  We look forward to seeing you there this evening!

This week young learners from Oakway and Victoria Primary School and Sir Christopher Hatton Secondary School 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. 

Year 8 students from The Weavers School looked at the properties of shapes in particular the pentagon and hexagon.  They learnt how to fold these shapes using origami paper folding principles.  These shapes were then fitted together to form 3D paper footballs.

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 students attending the Study Centre from the Wellingborough area  have been on a tour of the Nene Park Stadium.  They got to have a tour behind the scenes of the club including the players changing rooms and the players tunnel.

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 using Comic Life for the PC.

stadium-tour-poster-year5

stadium-tour-poster-year8

The Diamonds Study Centre was approached by the school to run a series of sessions designed to improve literacy skills and too motivate a group of football loving Year 9 students. These have been running within school hours and the initial session involved the students touring the Nene Park complex, completing both a numeracy and literacy based orienteering challenge, within the stadium, and then using the computers to design a poster with text and photographs to record their visit.

Students interview Justin Edinburgh prior to the game.

 On Tuesday evening the group interviewed Justin Edinburgh in the Study Centre before the game against Eastbourne Borough, wrote a skeleton match report during the game and then returned to the Study Centre to write a complete match report the following afternoon. It is hoped that the two winning reports, selected by staff at the school, written by Jamaar and Harry will feature on the club website and possibly in a future match day programme. During the final session we are hoping to arrange an interview and a practical coaching activity with Diamonds young players Aynsley McDonald and Adam Sharpe since they are Wellingborough based players and Adam is a former pupil of the school concerned.

Students hard at work writing their match reports.

Teachers from the school have sent their thanks to the club and the Study Centre for their assistance with the project and they have been extremely pleased with the attitude of their students and the quality of work which has been produced.     

Please click on the links below to see the two winning match reports which will appear in the Match Day program on Saturday 27th February.

newspaper-report-1

newspaper-report-2

Our young learners have been working hard this week and having lots of fun completing their Club Challenge posters.  Students devised their dream team with a £60 million 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!

Next week:  Player Interviews

This week saw the start of the Spring term for the Playing for Success programme at Diamonds Study Centre.  3 Primary and 3 Secondary schools from the Wellingborough 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!

The Diamonds Study Centre held its Presentation Evening on Monday 7^th December 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 which aims to improve the student’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. There are currently 163 centres, representing nineteen different sports, based at professional sports clubs across the country.

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 & Diamonds first team players Curtis Osano and Craig Farrell.

The schools involved in the scheme this term have all come from the Rushden area namely from Ferrers Arts College, Huxlow Science College and Manor Sports College, in addition to the younger students from Newton Road, Finedon Mulso and Windmill Primary Schools.

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. 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 of 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 continuing support which it has given to the Study Centre during this academic term.”  

Year 5 students with Curtis Osano.

Year 8 students with Craig Farrell.