Year: 2002
Type: other
Abstract: An Evaluation of the Third Year Executive summaryPlaying for Success is a national initiative, established by the DfES in partnership with the FA Premier League, the Nationwide League and their clubs, and LEAs.It aims to contribute to raising educational standards, especially in urban areas, by establishing Study Support Centres in professional football clubs 1 .Centres are managed by experienced teachers.They use the medium and environment of football to support work in literacy, numeracy and ICT.With a focus on addressing the needs of underachieving young people, mainly in Years 6 to 9, the initiative places a strong emphasis on improving pupils' attitudes and motivation to learn. Key FindingsPlaying for Success has proved popular with pupils, parents and schools• In total, the 35 Study Support Centres took over 12,600 pupils from 710 schools during 2000-1.The 'typical' Centre took pupils for a total of 20 hours over a period of ten weeks.• Pupils had high hopes of Playing for Success, and the experience lived up to their expectations.For example, over 90 per cent considered the Centre to be 'fun', 'interesting' and 'a good idea for me'.Few were able to identify anything about the Centre that could be improved.• Despite sessions being held after school, most pupils attended over 80 per cent of the course.• Parents had very positive views about their children's participation in Playing for Success.Table 1 Evaluation materials completed by pupils within each Centre Pupil Groups Pre-course Post-course Group A What YOU Think1 Using Numbers 1 What YOU Think 2 Using Numbers 2 Group B Using Computers 1 Reading 1 Using Computers 2 Reading 2Pupils were asked to complete either an attitude questionnaire ('What YOU Think') and a numeracy test ('Using Numbers') or an ICT skills checklist ('Using Computers') and a reading comprehension test ('Reading').The instruments were administered twice, once at the beginning and again at the end of the course (parallel versions of the tests were used, so that the pupils did not perform better on the second occasion simply because they had become more familiar with the tests).Each Centre was provided with all four pupil instruments and pupils were included in the analysis for each questionnaire/test instrument if they had completed both the pre-and the post-course versions.The evaluation also established a control group of 349 pupils, drawn from schools that were sending pupils to four of the Centres in the spring term.The purpose of the control group was to enable comparisons to be made between the progress of pupils attending the Centres and that of similar pupils who had not taken part in Playing for Success.Pupils in the control group were selected to be as similar as possible to pupils attending Playing for Success, and the evaluation instruments were administered to both groups at about the same time (i.e. to coincide with the beginning and end of the course). About this reportThis report is divided into seven chapters.Chapter 2 provides information about the Playing for Success Centres, their operation, staffing, aims and programme.Chapter 3 presents information about the characteristics and attendance of pupils at the 27 Centres.In Chapter 4, we examine the expectations and experiences of Playing for Success, based on the responses of pupils, parents and teachers.The questionnaire also asked how many schools and pupils would have attended the Centre during the 2000-1 school year.(Because the questionnaire was sent out in April, Centre Managers were asked to provide projections for the summer term.)Table 2.1 Number of pupils taking part during 2000-1 Pupils Autumn
Authors: Caroline Sharp, Jenny Blackmore, Lesley Kendall, Ian Schagen, Keith Mason, Katharine O'Connor
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1519888347