Swindon Town Study Centre
Swindon Town FC, in conjunction with a host of local companies, provide the Study Centre facility to help young children improve their Literacy, Numeracy, and ICT Skills.
The facility focuses on using sport as the medium to help young children get to grips with subjects that otherwise may be difficult to understand.
Interviewing players is a regularity; robot soccer tournaments, team building and player/management involvement are other building blocks that help the children learn in a safe environment.
For more information contact Martin Turnball on 01793 333752 or e mail him on martint@stfcstudy.org.uk
December 2003 - Study Support Presentation Evenings
Town manager Andy King came to the St.Catherine's Primary School presentation at the Study centre. The sheer number of parents took Andy aback, grandparents and guests who had come to see the work the 20 pupils from St.Catherines had produced.
The pupils had all produced a quiz about Swindon Town F.C. in Power Point. They also showed their quests the e-mail they had sent Sam Parkin and Sam's reply.
During the 10 sessions the children had produced a range of excellent work and Mrs Wiggall the link teacher said that if she could she would send a group of children to the centre every term.
The children finished the evening by making a short presentation in their small teams with the aid of a Power Point presentation. To reward all of this effort and achievement the children were given, a certificate recognising their achievement, 2 match tickets for the game against Brighton and a Swindon Town F.C stationary set.
Christmas really had come early. The excited children all wanted autographed pictures of the manager but Andy stated that they could have one only if they asked a question.
First question, how old are you? After a great deal of hilarity and banter between Andy and the parents all of the children left with their autographed pictures.
Pupils from Freshbrook, Gorse Hill, and Toothill Junior schools and Hreod Parkway, Greendown and St.Joseph's Secondary Schools have all had their presentation evenings this week. We would like to thank them for their commitment and hard work and wish them a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
October 2003Parkin - Plays His Part
The young people who attend study support at the County Ground are given a unique way to learn how to open and reply to e-mail messages. All of the pupils receive a welcome message from Sam Parkin with an attached video file in which Sam welcomes them to the Study Centre. They can then send Sam a reply with questions they would like him to answer.
Sam came in to the Study Centre during the half-term and accessed over 130 e-mail messages. Denise Ryan and Martin Turnbull helped extract the questions from the e-mails and then Sam sent a group reply to all of the pupils with a word document attached. The word document had the answers to 28 questions, which the children had asked him.
Some of the questions and answers...
Q: Do you have a talent apart from football?
A: I played Tennis for my County when I was at school.
Q: How did you become a professional footballer?
A: I was spotted playing Sunday League football by a scout from Wimbledon F.C.
Q: If someone waved a magic wand and made you chairman of STFC with loads of money who would you buy to improve the team and why.
A: Zinedine Zidane as he is the best player in the world or Raul
Sam also came in again to meet pupils from Freshbrook Junior School to see how they were progressing with their work. This gave the pupils the opportunity to interview Sam and get an autographed picture of him.
