Next term, students in the Double Club will be doing ‘multiskills’ as their practical with Graeme Wilson from Northamptonshire Sport.  Over the 12 week block they will do the following ; SAQ, Dodging, general ball handing , throwing, catching, foot skills, Multiskills relays, tactical skills, Racket skills, striking skills, team games & creativity.

For an example activity plan, download here: multi-skills-session-planner

The week after the Double Club students visited Sixfields Stadium, they wrote what they thought about its various facilities. The described the executive lounge, stands, shop, changing rooms, boardroom, pitch and the complex in general. They gave their opinions as to how they could be improved too. To listen to their thoughts, click on their voice recordings below.  

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Gutterball was the main teamwork game today. The trick is to maintain a slow speed and keep the same order of ‘gutter runners’. This game encourages communication, sportsmanship and co-ordination skills.

 

Everyone had a lot of fun and it was more energetic than it looks! Just don’t ask the boys team who won when it was boys versus girls!  

On Wednesday 3rd December 08, Thomas Becket Double Club students visited the Cobblers Study Centre and Sixfields Stadium. To see what they were working on, visit the school’s page.

http://double.northantsstudycentres.org/thomas-becket/

www.cobblersstudycentre.org

http://www.ntfc.co.uk/page/Home/

In November, year 8s from Abbeyfield visited the Steelbacks Study Centre for a stadium tour. They got behind the scenes access to Northants County Cricket Club and visited the gym, indoor arena, executive boxes, players’ balcony, Long room, supporter’s club, bar and saw the scoreboards. They had to do a literacy note-taking activity as when they got back to school in their ICT lesson, they produced a stadium tour postcard using this information.

Centre manager Yvonne Starsmeare led the tour and afterwards everyone made an origami T shirt while discussing sponsorship and logos. Yvonne showed the South Africa cricket world cup shirts for inspiration.

To see the Steelbacks Study Centre’s website: www.steelbacksstudycentre.org

Northants County Cricket Club’s ste: www.nccc.co.uk

To see Abbeyfield’s site

On Monday 1st December, year 8 students from Abbeyfield School’s Double Club visited Franklins Gardens Saints RFC, Saints Study Centre. They used photos taken when they visited the Steelbacks Study Centre and did a stadium tour of Northants County Cricket Club to construct a ‘photostory’. This is a free programme available to download from Microsoft whereby people can import photos, manipulate text, sound, voice recordings, music and make their own transitions. The group quickly picked up the skills needed and soon had some great ‘mini-movies’.They remembered an awful lot from their tour at the Steelbacks back in November, and used these facts to describe their photos. Some people proved to be naturals at commentating. Once they had gotten over their embarassment of hearing their voices that is!

Pete Austen, centre manager and Vicky Campkin, senior mentor ran the session, a big thanks to them.

To see what goes on at the study centre: www.saintsstudycentre.org

For the club: visit their page

Scott Cohen from Arsenal Double Club visited Thomas Becket school this week to see how the year 8 students are getting on in their Double Club sessions. He joined us for the literacy, numeracy and practical lessons and was pleased to be able to join in, talk to the students and see what work they were doing.

For week 9’s activities, click here

Scott told the group about what happens at Arsenal Double Club schools and how he has been visiting other projects across the country. It was good to be able to have ‘premiership chat’, particularly recent events concerning Gallas being dropped from the Arsenal squad due to making negative comments about his team mates. This fitted in well with one of the day’s lessons: ’success and failure’.

Scott had this to say: “The Northampton Double Club at Thomas Beckett School is very impressive.  The school are really supporting the project by selecting the appropriate boys and girls and putting their own staff in the classroom with the Northampton PFS staff.  The pupils engaged with the football and cricket based literacy and numeracy resources and the two hour lesson moved along at a quick pace with some enjoyable activities to break up the lesson.  The football part of the Double Club was equally successful.  The youngsters responded well to the Northampton Town coach and it was great to see everyone participating and enjoying themselves on a cold day.  Long may this project continue!”

To find out more about Arsenal Double Club, follow the links below:

http://double.northantsstudycentres.org/arsenal-double-club/

http://www.arsenal.com/the-club/community/arsenal-double-club

On Wednesday 19th November 2008, Richard Page from the DCSF visited the Northampton Town Double Club at Thomas Becket school. He attended part of the literacy and numeracy session in the Double Club classroom, watched some of the football coaching and assisted students in their ICT work. Val Sudlow from Northants Study Centres came too, as well as Tom Doveston, Juliet Murphy and Paul Gardiner popping in throughout the morning. For a full description of the lessons that day, have a look at the Thomas Becket webpage.

This visit was an opportunity for Richard to see what a Double Club is and how it is run in Northampton. He asked questions and was very interested in all parts of the project.  He had this to say in feedback:

“This was my first opportunity to visit a Double Club and I very much appreciated the opportunity to see how it was all organised and what sort of experience it was for the pupils.  Thanks to the hard work, commitment, energy and enthusiasm of Anna, Beccy and Helena it was clearly an enjoyable and profitable time for the pupils, to whom I am very grateful for taking the time to talk to me while the session was going on.  I am clear that this is a really good example of the good practice that the Double Club approach has generated.”

As Thomas Becket has strong links with the Saints Study Centre, Tom was able to talk about other PfS style projects happening there which Richard and Val visited in the afternoon.

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/index.htm

Articles about the Double Club have appeared in NTFC’s match day programmes. They can also be seen on the Cobblers in the Community pages:

http://www.ntfc.co.uk/page/StudyCentreIndex/0,,10425,00.html

Fame at last!

Beccy (Double Club leader) said “Double Club has changed my life. I’ve learnt how sport engages the pupils and helps them achieve their potential. I now own a Cobblers football strip and have been to a game. What a family affair!”

Helena “The students have began to develop a good sense of teamwork. Academically, and sportingly.”

Grace “It helps me with my maths, the games. I like the sports because it keeps me fit.”

Shannon “I like it because its fun, we learn how to do maths and english in fun activitites. Its more fun because you get to talk about the things that you like and what you don’t like.”

Mat “It’s sick because its very fun. We learn and play football. Its different to normal lessons because it’s not silent. It helps my english because we learn about new things. Talking about sport is better.”

Michael “You use maths, english in fun ways. We do adding, kicking the ball in rugby. We have become friends when we came to Double Club.”

Tom “It sometimes isn’t what I want to do (rugby), I like playing football, using the computer to cut and paste. The lesson on anti-racism was good  because you can tell people not to be racist.”

Danny “Its wicked because I understand it. If I don’t understand it, the teachers explain. Theres only a few of us so we have more time to explain. I like the trips, we played cricket at the Steelbacks. It was good as the teachers joined in.”

Ryan “Its good because we do good, fun things. We do football, rugby. The maths and english is easy because they’re not too hard.”

Ivanna “Its fun because we get out of lessons and meet other people. I like when we work in groups.”

Susan “I learn more about the computers. We get specialists in, like the Cobblers coach and the sports really fun.”

Laura “We have been learning fun mahts. We do activities with it, like going outside. PE with fantastic games.”

Amie “The maths and english are better than normal lessons. I don’t like football and rugby, but I still join in. “

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