Welcome to The Zone
LEARNING THROUGH SPORT
A different aspect to the facility, this Zone is concerned with education and welfare. It houses Huddersfield Town's excellent Study Support program
The Learning Zone is the home of Huddersfield Town Study Centre but also plays host to many other schemes and projects that take place here at The Zone. The study centre is part of the national ‘Playing for Success’ after school study support project. There are 162 Playing for Success centres in the country, each one based at a sports club. HTFC Study Centre is one of most well established centres and recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Groups of 15 pupils from local schools attend HTFC Study Centre for up to 3 hours after school each weekday evening from Monday – Thursday for 10 weeks. Each pupil works on a well structured and personalised programme of literacy and numeracy activities. Enhancing pupils’ levels of confidence, self-esteem, motivation and self-reliance are also key aims of the centre staff. Teamwork, co-operation and respect for others are further important aspects of the centre’s ethos.
The centre has two permanent full-time staff members, Mike Mawson (centre co-ordinator) and Zoe Farran (centre assistant). We are also fortunate in having strong links with both local colleges and the voluntary sector and have a very healthy mentoring programme. On an average week we would benefit from the assistance of 10-15 mentors who attend from Greenhead Sixth Form College, Huddersfield University, Voluntary Action Kirklees and V (formerly Millennium Volunteers). The centre has 20 networked PCs, an interactive whiteboard, 2 plasma screens and 3 Apple Macbooks.
The centre staff pride themselves on the ‘cutting-edge’ standard of the centre’s programmes. The pupils learn by playing online educational games, using Nintendo DS software and by playing Maths and English games on the Wii. The use of digital cameras and video editing software, Apple software such as Comic Life and iPhoto and interactive assessment software such as Ezclick is also built in to each programme.
As well as having a healthy after school PfS programme, the centre is also busy during school hours. The centre staff co-ordinate or contribute to a number of projects that take place at The Zone including:
• A Family Learning project funded by the Football League Trust,
• A ‘Twinning’ project funded by Kirklees Council Community Cohesion,
• ‘Communicating for Success’ – a media and communications project funded by BT and the Football Foundation.
The centre has been awarded Quality in Study Support (Qiss) at Established level. Qiss is a recognised national kitemark which is awarded to educational centres that display excellence in study support. Established level is the second of three levels and the centre is planning to apply for the third and top level (Advanced) in the near future.
