Playing for Success
The Pirates Learning Zone belongs to the government iniative ‘Playing for Success’ (PfS). The programme aims to offer students a fixed term of after school study support; targeted at students who are just below national levels in core curriculum subjects (ICT, numeracy, and literacy). Students are given support to raise them to national average. The programme has also showed evidence that it can increase self esteem and motivation towards school and attitudes towards learning. The initiative has a simple principle: if learning is interesting and fun then children will learn. The added ‘wow’ factor of the iniative is that the Study Support Centres are based in recognised sporting environments. When the ‘PfS’ was initiated, the focus was football and rugby clubs, such as Arsenal, Northampton Saints and Manchester United, Premiership clubs that have enormous stadiums that make for great learning environments and also have players that students aspire to be like. Since the start, in 2000, the spectrum of sports involved in the initiative has grown and there are over 150 Centres nationally and the sport clubs that host the Study Support Centres range from Premiership football and rugby clubs, to Silverstone Race Circuit and Nottingham Ice Rink. For more details visit; http://www.dfes.gov.uk/playingforsuccess
For Cornwall’s own inclusion in the National initiative, the County Council were successful in their bid for the Cornish Pirates to host a Study Support Centre in 2002. Since the start of the programme of study over 2000 students from Penwith have enjoyed learning in a slightly different way to school and with the support of the Pirates Club and players. The results back in school have been very encouraging. On average over 80% of students who attend the programme at level 3/4 leave with level 5 in the core curriculum subjects.
Since the success of the Pirates Learning Zone in 2002, the County has been successful in further bids which include Penryn Sports College hosting a satellite of the programme and Delaware Outdoor Education centre which uses adventure sports as its sport. In addition to this, the network has recently formed a charity called ‘Cornwall Playing for Success.’ One of the trustees keen to see the PfS programme go Countywide is Pete Goss the famous sailor from Cornwall.
The charity has a focus that is a commitment to expand the ‘PfS’ initiative, countywide. Determining a site in Camborne where we could pilot the scheme was not difficult, once we had a brief meeting with Sue Sayer and the Learning Space team, it seemed as though it was meant to be! The philosophy and learning provision offered at the Learning Space is similar to that of PfS and the Centre certainly offers the “wow” factor! A state of the art facility with supportive schools, committed to change the way students achieve.
The Learning Space now hosts the pilot programme, with 4 schools per term attending the 10 week study support programme. The Cornish Pirates are still the focus of the sessions and the students from Camborne enjoy player training sessions and player interviews with the Pirates and it is thanks to the Club’s continued commitment to supporting the community that the players are able to attend and take part in the study support sessions.
