When asked for their opinions of their six week programme at the Warriors Study Centre based at Sixways, Year 8 students from Christopher Whitehead Language College were unanimous in their responses to their Head of Year, Becky Woods.
Two-hourly sessions once per week were very well received by 54 students selected by six local Primary and High Schools for voluntary additional support in their learning as part of the pilot programme conducted during the Spring Term. So good was the response that many students were reluctant to leave the Centre and had to be persuaded to go home some twenty minutes after the scheduled ending of the study session! A good proportion of students are keen to return to further develop their literacy, numeracy and ICT skills.
Commitment to the programme by the students was very encouraging with 57% of students attending every session that was offered to them with the overall attendance for all students registering 87%.
Students have involved themselves in fun brain gym activities, interactive rugby shirt design, making an identity card, reporting on their stadium tour and interviewing Warriors players and staff. As a motivational tool all students were awarded Premiership Points for their attendance, effort, work completion, behaviour and for additional study undertaken in their own time with all students achieving the targets set. Weekly awards were presented to the Player and Team of the Week. Three Pershore High School students teamed up as the Springboks and were successful in achieving the Team of the Season award.
The programme has now extended to ten weeks of learning support and the Centre has welcomed attendance from an additional four schools – Kingsley College (Redditch), Witton Middle School (Droitwich), Lickhill Lodge First School (Stourport) and Tenbury Primary School.
Centre Manager, Glynn Lodge, and his staff and Sixth Form and community volunteers expect a further 112 students to pass through the Centre’s doors this term. Glynn is keen to see the Centre’s provision develop and has begun to welcome additional schools to use the facility for day time sessions, including the Key Stage 3 SATs and GCSE science revision sessions led by a Worcestershire County Council Achievement and Access science consultant and attended this week by Arrowvale High School (Redditch).