Working with Children and Schools - 2010

School Holiday Playschemes

FC United has continued to deliver school holiday playschemes across Greater Manchester focussing on five communities with which we are developing a long-term relationship. By going back to the same areas again and again, our team of coaches can get to know children and young people and build up the numbers attending the coaching sessions. All our playschemes remain free of charge to the children. Examples of our playschemes include:-

Newall Green, Wythenshawe, Manchester

Discussions with Manchester Leisure identified a gap in school holiday provision in Newall Green. Using funding from Wythenshawe Regeneration, Tranter Cleere Solicitors and Barnardo’s North West, our coaches have delivered football coaching sessions at Newall Green Leisure Centre forming part of a wide range of activities for children and young people in the area. Children attending these sessions have been given free tickets to our matches and free supervised transport has been laid on. This has meant that families and unaccompanied children from the area can attend matches to get their first taste of a live football match. Young careleavers from Barnardo’s ‘Making It Work’ project have assisted our coaches in a voluntary capacity to gain valuable experience.

Little Hulton, Salford

Funding from the Little Hulton and Walkden Community Committee has allowed the club to develop its partnership with Harrop Fold Specialist Arts College and its feeder primary schools. Students from Harrop Fold who have achieved a Sports Leaders
Award have assisted our coaches in delivering these sessions and their volunteering will go towards their Duke of Edinburgh Awards. The young volunteers were awarded certificates by the club on the pitch at Gigg Lane at half-time. This project also involved children getting free tickets and free transport to attend their first ever live football match.

Kirkholt, Rochdale

After our coaches had been running football sessions in Sandbrook Primary School, the school incorporated football sessions delivered by FC coaches into its mix of school holiday activities and these have proved very popular with up to 80 children attending some school holiday activities.

Ancoats, Manchester

As part of our work with St. Anne’s Primary School in Ancoats, our coaches have delivered school holiday activities using funding from the Lottery. Activities have included other sports as well as football with badminton proving to be a particular favourite at St. Anne’s.

Newton Heath, Manchester

The club has used funding from Barnardo’s to run school holiday activities in association with Briscoe Lane Primary School. As with other projects, the Newton Heath playschemes have provided volunteering experiences for young people, many of whom are careleavers.

Working in Schools

Our coaches are delivering sports sessions in a number of school across Greater Manchester. This year we have worked in Sandbrook Primary School in Rochdale, Woodhouse Primary School in Davyhulme and St. John Vianney Special School in Stretford. We have also run lunchtime football sessions for the students at Parrenthorn High School in Prestwich.

We are especially proud of our work in Ladywood Primary School in Little Lever in Bolton. Ladywood School caters for children with severe learning difficulties and autism. Many of the pupils at the school have had some very negative experiences of mainstream schools before getting a place at Ladywood and the school wanted our coaches to bring a sense of fun into their school day.

It just so happens that our first team goalkeeper, Sam Ashton, lives close to the school and he and Phil Schofield from our community coaching team ran ten sports sessions for children on Friday mornings. The children responded very positively to Sam and Phil and have extended the club’s contract.

Sally Macfarlane, the school’s Headteacher, said,

The work that the FC United coaches have done at Ladywood has been highly successful. The coaches very quickly adapted to the needs of our pupils and have tailored the activities very well.

The pupils really enjoy the sessions. The benefits we have seen have been wide ranging not only in supporting the development of football and fitness skills but also in building confidence and self esteem.

After School Clubs

The club’s after-school clubs have been concentrated in North Manchester. We have run after-school clubs in;

• Harpur Mount Primary School in Harpurhey
• Cheetwood Primary School in Cheetham Hill
• Briscoe Lane Primary School in Newton Heath
• St. Anne’s Primary School in Ancoats

We are very pleased, on the back of this work, to have been appointed a delivery partner for Manchester Leisure’s ‘Passport2Sport’ scheme in North Manchester which will involve us in after school clubs in more schools in that part of Manchester.

Our ‘flagship after school club’ has, without a doubt, been the one at St. Anne’s in Ancoats. The club received a lottery grant to develop a format for an after-school club that went beyond just football and involved the youngsters in a number of aspects of the club.

As well as attending football training, the children at St. Anne’s did a number of other activities with us including;

• growing vegetables on a school plot
• learning how to make a healthy salad from the vegetables they had grown
• interviewing volunteers at an FC United match
• volunteering themselves as ballboys and ballgirls
• making their own school FC United banner
• playing a whole range of different sports

Raising Aspirations – Setting Targets Achieving Goals

FC United continues to work with Manchester College to raise the aspirations of young people through our so-called STAG sessions (Setting Targets, Achieving Goals).

Thanks to funding from the Co-op, we have been able to offer free sessions combining football training with a chance to take a look at the educational opportunities that exist for young people at Manchester College.

Groups of youngsters have attended these sessions from a number of schools including Harrop Fold Arts College, Little Hulton, The Albion School in Salford, Parrenthorn High School, Prestwich and Bolton Muslim Girls School.