Playing for Success
Many schools in Lewisham have been working with
The Millwall Study Support Centre, which opened in February 2003.
This was set up as part of the government’s ‘Playing for
Success’ initiative, providing out-of-school-hours learning sessions
and many Sage schools have been involved, including Haseltine, Launcelot,
Torridon Juniors, Merlin, Malory and Catford Girls.
Pupils from Merlin and Malory schools attended
for two hours a week over 10 weeks, as part of a programme that
aimed to raise achievements in literacy, numeracy and ICT, by using
football as a motivational tool.
The scheme, based at the Millwall Football
Club site, included the opportunity for secondary pupils to take
part in coaching sessions before they visited the ICT suite. A tour
of the football stadium was also included and was followed by maths
tasks in the state-of-the-art ICT suite, with networked computers,
interactive whiteboards, hand-held computers, digital cameras, scanners
and internet access.
The programme was jointly funded by the Department
for Education and Skills, Lewisham Education & Culture and Millwall
FC. It was one of 78 ‘Playing for Success’ centres throughout
the country and proved to be one of the DfES’s most successful
initiatives to date.
An evaluation found that:
‘On average, primary pupils improved
their numeracy scores by about 17 months and secondary pupils by
about 24 months.’
‘Performance in reading comprehension
improved during the pupils' time at the Centres … Secondary
pupils’ reading comprehension scores improved significantly,
by the equivalent of about eight months.’
‘Changes …were evident in pupils'
independent study skills and self-image.'
