I loved coming to the cobblers it has been a great few days out!!!! My computer skills have improved the most but also my English and a little math. The best part of coming to the study centre was that we were always doing something fun but while we were, we were always learning something, while having fun!!! I’m sure we’ve all had a great time as I have had a fantastic time with all the helpers - Emma, Jean, Margaret, Matthew, Gail. Here is a picture of all of us in the study centre!!!

Leonie - Falconers Hill

The Prince’s Trust Northampton North Team 28 have been working on a 12 week Personal Development Course. This involves a City and Guilds award in individual team work, community skills award, key skills in working with others improving own learning, performance and problem solving. The team have tackled many challenges over the 12 weeks including induction, an outward bound residential where they all completed activities such as abseiling, rock climbing, completing a Tyrolean traverse, weasling and problem solving. Fundraising for their community project on week 3 where the team raised over £750 for their project at Fairfields School for children with multi - sensory disabilities. Darren Norton from Northampton town visited our team room to deliver a healthy lifestyle session. During weeks 4, 5 and 6 the team completed the project at Fairfields School, redeveloping a memorial garden for children that had died at the school and designing an underwater themed hallway leading to the swimming pool. Week 6 also involved our first visit to Northampton Town Football Club’s Study Centre were the team completed CV’s, application forms and had the use of all the computer facilities. A very big thank you to Jean for all your help. During week 7 and 8 the team undertook a variety of work placements and week 9 was the next step involving interview techniques, employment requirements and preparing us for finding full time employment. Week 10 was our team challenge where our team visited Vitalise - a holiday centre for disabled adults. This had a major impact on our team with many team members already booked in for future visits. During week 11 we returned to Northampton town football club for a coaching session with Darren Norton which helped to improve our team work skills, unfortunately none of us made it into the first team! Once again we had the use of the Study Centre to help us prepare our scripts for our final presentation which will be held at Northampton Town Football Club on Wednesday the 16^th July.

Danielle Houlton – Princes Trust Team 28

The year 8 kic.in2.study group have just completed a ten week programme based at the Cobblers Study Centre.  Attendance was excellent and we saw a great improvement in confidence in a number of the young people.  Early sessions were dedicated to getting to know each other and learning to work as a team.  Margaret’s drain pipe game was great fun, and we almost cracked group juggling. 

 We were lucky to have the opportunity to tour the stadium, visiting many areas the general public don’t usually get the chance to see.  Lots of photographs were taken and the students then used Publisher to create a comic strip incorporating photographs and text.  The stadium was the location for the orienteering activity which brought out the competitive spirit in several people. 

A presentation by the healthy food and drink team saw us sampling a range of fruit, some familiar, some fairly strange, and then we made and taste-tested several smoothie recipes.  Mmmmmm  

We followed up this activity by devising a healthy menu for the Cobblers team on a match day.

A memory workshop challenged us all to improve our memory skills through a series of activities ranging from the familiar “I went to market….”, Kim’s game, practising grouping  things together, card memory games and more complicated visualisation tricks.  Everyone saw some improvement in their ability to remember things.  On another occasion we looked at different types of intelligence and tried to work out where our strengths lay - were we number smart, people smart, body smart, word smart, myself smart, picture smart, nature smart or music smart?

One week saw us visiting Franklin Gardens to join a PfS group from the Saints Study Centre in a Circus Skills workshop led by the county jester Kevin Burke.  Research has shown that these activities give the brain a bit of a workout and aid concentration.  We also saw how it encouraged the students to persevere at an activity and keep practising until they’d mastered it.  We saw some great juggling, fantastic work with the flower sticks, superb plate spinnng and impressive stilt walking.

Bellboating was a new venture for the Kic.in2.study programme and we are very grateful to Margaret for organising our session at the Northampton Sailing Club at Pitsford reservoir.  She assured us the boat was virtually unsinkable, provided everyone with buoyancy aids, a quick lesson in the rudiments, and before we knew it the Kic.in2.study boat crew were on the water! 

This has been a fantastic group to work with and we will miss them on Wednesday evenings.  However we hope to see them on some of the holiday activities on offer, and again next year.

I have had a great time at the Cobblers playing games like the Gutter Game and the Football Card game!! Making bags, slide shows and a menu for a restaurant I have had fun doing all of them. This is something that I will never be able to do again!! It is a big thank you to the people that do this, the volunteers and Jean and Margaret!! They have made it fun!!! Rhiannon - Falconers Hill.

On Monday the 9th of June the Year 5/6 class at Upton Meadows Primary School were rewarded for reaching and surpassing their reading target as part of the Playing with Words Reading scheme. This is the first year that the school has been involved in the scheme and every member of the class received NTFC prizes for their contribution to the class effort. The reading scheme is run in partnership with the Football Foundation and the National Literacy Trust and challenges each class to read 100 books in a term. The school receives 60 new reading books, posters to fill in, stickers for every book read and a journal for each child to record their progress. The children are also encouraged to complete book reports and online evaluations of the programme. Ms York’s Yr5/6 class have now challenged the current Yr4 class to try to beat their reading score, when they take part in the reading scheme in September. 

On the 3rd of May the Cobblers Study Centre welcomed a group of children and staff from the WBA Study Centre to Sixfields. The group are taking part in a Gifted and Talented project, run by the study support centre at WBA, that will take them to a number of study centres in football clubs around the country. The group  participated in a range of activities during the course of the day including the Stadium Orienteering Challenge, team games and a sequencing activity based on the life of Walter Tull. The day was rounded - off with tickets to the Cobblers final match of the season against Tranmere. The day was a great success and children from the Cobblers Study Centre can look forward to a return visit to the Hawthorns next season.

The Study Centre is currently running a leadership programme for Northampton School for girls. The programme is being run in partnership with the Community Programme, with Darren Norton delivering the JFO (Junior Football Organiser) course to the students. The four Year 9 students from NSG attend the study centre for 3 hours per week during which time they receive an hour of JFO course instruction and two hours of Playing for Success type activities. The programme is designed to develop leadership skills, build confidence and raise self-esteem in young people and has proven to be very successful so far. The four students will ultimately plan and run a football festival for children from the local community. As part the course requirements they have already planned and run two very successful practical sessions at Upton Meadows Primary School. The feedback from the school has been very positive and the NSG students were able to make a significant contribution to the school community. This programme is the latest new project piloted by the Study Centre, bringing together a number of partners to ensure its success.

1 April 2008

Another successful Playing for Success term was brought to a close with the presentation evening on the 1^st April. Parents, carers, teachers and friends were invited down to the club to celebrate all that the young people have achieved over the course of the programme. Presentation Evenings are always popular and this was no exception with the Executive Restaurant filled to capacity. Mark Bunn and Liam Doleman were on hand to present certificates and goody bags to the young people from the following schools:

Kingsthorpe College

Kingsheath Primary School

Kingsthorpe Grove Primary School

Kingsthorpe Village Primary School

Green Oaks Primary School

Whitehills Primary School

The Good Shepherd Catholic Primary School

All Saints CEVA Primary School

After announcing the winners of the ‘Champions League’ competition, there was just enough time to get some autographs signed and pose for a photo or two.

The next PfS programme starts on the 21^st of May and we are pleased to welcome the Daventry schools in to the centre for the very first time.

On Wednesday 23 January the Women’s Farming Union (WFU) spent the day in the Study Centre promoting the Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA) Farmhouse Breakfast Week. The centre was transformed for the day as the WFU set up an interactive display including posters and items for the children to look at and touch relating to a variety of areas of farming. A number of children from Upton Meadows, Lyncrest and St Luke’s primary schools joined us in the centre at various times during the course of the day. The children were treated to bacon rolls, apple juice, locally grown apples and a ‘farming in the classroom’ session on British farming delivered by the WFU. The ‘farming in the classroom’ session was fun and informative for the children drawing on their own experiences and increasing their awareness of British farming and healthy eating. Great fun was had by all and the children left the centre buzzing with excitement and their new found knowledge of the countryside.

A big thank you must go to the WFU for giving up their day to work with our local schools and share their knowledge and experience with the children.