Annual Report 09

The Cougar Pride Centre Aims to: Create a positive enriching environment, which will assist all participants in courses at the centre to reach their full potential To hep nurture self respect, inter-personal skills and develop within all students at the centre a positive attitude towards education and strive to create a commitment to life long learning. To ensure that all course participants development will be enriched through an effective partnership of the study centre staff, schools, parents, Keighley Cougars and the wider community. 2008/9 has been a very successful Year for the Centre. Our successes include: Shakespeare in the stands held at East Riddlesden Hall with 200 people participated in this event Easter Booster Sessions for 55 students QISS achieved at emerged level New Secondary school courses developed and piloted leading to a developing relationship with students who will be tracked through their secondary education Centre visited by Alistair Campbell The centre was officially opened by Gerry Sutcliffe the Minister for Sport.

This year has been one of consolidation for the Cougar Pride Centre. We have worked with 365 students at the centre; with a further 100 have contact through Shakespeare in the Stands in November 2008. We have run 23 PfS sessions, 1 Raising Boys Achievement session, 4 Maths Booster days and a week’s summer school. 21 Schools worked with the Centre through PfS during the term time but a further 3 schools sent students to the Easter PfS sessions. Through the Easter boosters and summer schools a further 7 schools sent students to the Centre. Staffing at the Centre consisted on a full time Centre Manager and a term time + 3 Weeks classroom Assistant. We also employed part time a teacher to deliver one session a week in the summer term. For the autumn term a player mentor worked in the Centre. The Cougar Pride Centre has continued to create a bright welcoming space to the students regularly updating displays, and using player picture to motivate a create a learning atmosphere. The integration of students from different backgrounds is one of our objectives and I cannot summarise what we have done better than a year 5 student who on his part of his end of course report (without any prompting or help from staff) wrote:“At Cougar Pride I have learn lots of skills and have had lots of fun. I have also learnt a lot more things attached to school like maths, literacy and communication with new people. But the best point of all is that I have got some new friends and I have learnt to ask for help instead of just wasting time and not doing anything! Thanks go out to Liz and Rachel for all their support and encouragement”.T C East Morton School.

PfS Sessions

The sessions run from Monday to Thursday evenings as 8 week courses from 3.15pm until 6pm total 22 hours plus the students attend a pre-visit for 2 hours.At each session we have 24 students, 12 from each participating school. We select schools which come from very different areas and the students have the opportunity to find out about the others. In an area as culturally diverse as the Aire Valley we have found that this has been very important.

Session Planning: Primary We try to respond to local school needs and offer the following sessions throughout the year. Each group is given a basic introduction to the centre and club completing a ‘Cougar Park Trail’ in their first session . Autumn term: English with ICT is the main theme for this term when we include a session with Kieron Jones from the Shakespeare Works Company. Other Activities in this term have included ✦ Creating comic strips based on Shakesperan Stories ✦ Students working in groups to produce ‘celebration raps ‘ based around the Cougars Play Off success. ✦ Learning new DTP skills using Publisher to produce DVD covers ✦Computer word games challenges Spring Term This is our Maths term which then leads into the Maths Easter booster sessions for KS2 SATs. This addresses the needs highlighted by the school SATs results which locally show that Maths needs boosting. Other activities this term have included ✦Top Trumps Maths works based on player statistics ✦Activities based on team squad numbers ✦Club Shop Maths Challenge (also including internet research) ✦Maths Computer Games Summer term Here we do a mixed diet off literacy, numeracy and ICT and is designed for year 5 students to enthuse them. We go to our local national trust Property where we work on story telling and then they come back to the centre to develop a multimedia photostory using the pictures and the sounds they collected. Other activities this term have included ✦Creating Comic Life strips featuring club mascot Freddie Cougar ✦Speed Stackers ✦‘Ugger Rugger’ profiles

Session Planning Secondary

As we have very few Secondary schools attending courses at the Cougar Pride Centre we only offer 4 sessions a year. Spring Term We offer a marketing course called The Apprentice. Students use literacy and numeracy skills to create a small company who have to design a product which they have to then produce within a budget to sell at a game. Each week they are given a task which they have assessed by Sir Freddie Cougar. They put their ideas to staff at the club who will advise them on their choices. Summer Term Music and podcasting Students learn to play an instrument, they have to form a group, then practise and produce a song which will then be re corded at the local CLC. They also design the CD cover for the record as well as keeping a podcasting record of what they do.

Minister for Sport Gerry Sutcliffe MP officially launched the Cougar Pride ‘Playing for Success’ classroom at Cougar Park in June The Bradford South MP was the guest of honour for Keighley Cougars’ home Co-operative Championship One fixture against Rochdale Hornets and his main duty was to celebrate the Cougar Pride classroom’s achievements. Mr Sutcliffe said: “Sports has the power to change lives and it gave me great pleasure to officially launch what has become a centre of excellence. “I’d like to pay tribute to all the partnerships that have enabled the classroom to be placed here at Cougar Park and to all the people who have worked so hard to ensure that as many schoolchildren of possible gain so much from their experience with Cougar Pride”. Liz Kidman, the Cougar Pride classroom manager, said: “It has been a great day for the centre and to have the Minister for Sport perform the ceremony was a great honour for us. “The classroom has proved during the last two years that it can deliver significant programmes that fit within the National Curriculum and expose children to those requirements and Rugby League at the same time”. Mr Sutcliffe was accompanied at the Cougar Pride classroom opening by Keighley’s MP Ann Cryer, who is also a trustee of the Cougar Community Foundation, and Mr Neil Spencer, the chairman of Keighley Cougars.

The Centre continued its association with local National Trust property East Riddlesden Hall with a week of story writing activites for Primary school groups attending summer PFS courses. Working with Hall Education Officer Delphi Scott, the students devised their own versions of tale of the ‘Grey Lady’, the14th Century Ghost that is reputed to haunt the Hall. Using the Hall and its grounds as a backdrop as well as historical props and costumes they planned and took a series of photographs to tell the story. (The spookier and more gruesome the better !) Back at the centre the students were challenged to, using ‘Photo Story 3’ and ‘Powerpoint’ software to create their own multimedia versions of the tale using their photos, speech, sound effects and digital re-imaging to enhance the story.

‘’thanks so much I loved doing this :-) !!!!’ Oakbank pupil Spring 2009

Former Labour Party Publicity Chief Alastair Campbell was a guest of honour at the Cougars match against Oldham after he revealed a boyhood ambition to play for the Cougars his hometown club. During his afternoon at Cougar Park, he took time out to visit the Pride Centre and talk to students from Beckfoot and Oakbank school who were at the game as a finale to their eight week course,where they had set up shop to sell Cougar merchandise they had designed themselves as part a marketing course based on the TV Series ‘The Apprentice’.Calenders,key rings and an exclusive range of “born to be a Cougar ‘babywear were among the items on sale ,with students donating the £50 profit to the Sue Ryder Manorlands hospice and Comic Relief. Sir Alan Sugar found himself fired for the course replaced by ‘Sir Freddie Cougar ‘ who provided feedback on the students performance in various tasks over the eight weeks to develop their marketing, research and teamwork skills, as well as improving their ability in the centres core subjects of literacy, numeracy and ICT.Among their early tasks the students formed their own ‘companies’ giving themselves an opportunity to reflect on their own personal skills and create an identity for their group, through logo and slogan design. As most of the students were unfamiliar with the Rugby League club, they also used differing information sources such as the Cougars’ website and match day programme to learn more about the team and its players.As the weeks progressed, the students’ tasks included Costing, design and production of their chosen products, market research, advertising and promotion, with Cougar Pride Centre staff being joined by the club’s sales and marketing team to provide some expert advice. During a tour around Cougar Park prior to the match, Mr Campbell made a beeline for the students sales pitch where he was subjected to some of the students more unique ‘selling techniques’.(pictured)The work done by the Pride Centre featured heavily in a colour spread written by Campbell in The Times Magazine recounting his trip to Cougar Park and the part played by the Club in the local community.

Year six students from throughout the Keighley and district Area came together for 4 days over the Easter Holidays to take part in the Cougar Pride Centres Annual ‘Easter Maths Booster sessions . As a first for 2009 , centre staff also took one session ‘on the road ‘,with a session running at the Manningham Mills Sports Club ,to allow students from North Bradford to participate. With the aim of increasing student success in maths in the upcoming SATS ,a packed programme took place taking advantage of both the ICT facilities of the centre and outdoor space around the ground. Maths trails around the stand, Cougar Top Trumps, the Squad Number Team challenge and online maths games galore, were amongst the learning activities on offer,with participation certifictes presented to all those attending.

‘I hope other childeren get a chance like us to come to Cougar Pride thank u and I hope we get another chance to come back’ Easter Maths Boosters pupil 2009

One of the strengths of the Cougar Pride Centre is its excellent working relationship with its host club, the Keighley Cougars . The Cougars have a long standing reputation for involvement throughout the local community, with the Cougar Pride centre operating as an integral part of that work since it establishment in 2006. The Club Chairman ,Neil Spencer is part of the Centre’s steering group and is a Cougar Pride ‘regular’ ,taking an active role in the development of the centre. Pride Centre staff also work closley sharing resources and ideas with the Cougars Community Development team ,led by Foundation Manager Dean Muir with Development Officer and first team squad member Tom Hall already familiar to many of the students through his schools rugby league coaching programme. One vital team member also heavily involved with the work of Cougar Pride is of course the highly popular Mascot Freddie Cougar , with the furry felines rugular trips from his home in the boot room to visit students and take part in activities a perenial favourite with everyone. Freddies ‘Get Fit Campaign‘ run in conjuction with the local newspaper ,which saw our rather rotund Freddie shape up ,eat corectly and exercise more to turn into a fine specimin of a Cougar was followed by students at the centre .In the Summer Term Freddie also found himself the hero of some inventive comic strips produced by Primary School Playing For Success Students . As an further incentive to learning this year has seen, the student from each school adjudged to by Centre Staff to have have gained most from the PFS Course, awarded a special smaller version of Freddie ,jointly produced by the centre and the club , These are presented along with other certificates and prizes at the centres Celebration events . Club Player Coach Barry Eaton , Top try Scorer Jon Presley , Australian Prop Brendon Rawlins and regular first teamer Will Cartledge have all been our guests over the year , This year has seen Prop Brendon move onto other things after spending the last two years as our player mentor that has seen him provide an excellent role model to students at Cougar Pride . He is replaced for this year with one of the Clubs younger players , scrum half Ben Stead , Even the Clubs Front Office staff have been involved during the year with the sales and marketing team providing specialist advice and encouragment to the Secondary students taking part in the ‘Apprentice’marketing course . The Cougar Club found its self in the spotlight when after a succesful season the team made the Grand Final , showed on Sky Tv with the Pride Students being involved in both the build up to and consequent celebrations after the boys brought the Cup and subsequent promotion back home to Cougar Park. Prior to the match, the Students were given the opportunity to give the squad some encoragment , performing their some stirring self penned motivational poetry in front of the players . After a victory ,’celebration raps ‘ were the order of the day ,performed of course with Trophy in hand, with each student given the chance to get their hands on the Cup and raise it in true big match style. Myrtle Park and Victoria Students even got the chance to meet the entire team as they saw them off on their open topped bus victory parade around Keighley Town Centre,

‘The Cougar Centre has made me more confident ,it has been a good experience for me and I’ve enjoyed it Wycliffe Pupil Spring 2009

The Cougar Pride Centre temed up with the Victoria Extended Schools Partnership to hold a week long Summer School for youngsters in the local area . The ever popular hovercraftbuilding sessions were followed by a days rugby based theme, a n afternoon of street dance and finished off with a highly enjoyable (if not VERY loud drumming workshop ! Again the Pride Centre would like to thank UFA (Bradford )for their help in staging this event.

Keighley Cougars are set for a rugby league first with the launch of the ‘The Cougars Local History Scheme of Work for Primary Schools’ the first of its kind to facilitate classroom teaching of local history through the history and heritage of the professional rugby club. Brian Heywood of Sports Inspire Publishing , who has previously put together similar projects for Burnley and Millwall Football Club, has worked with Pride Staff to put together a fully resourced and structured sequence of lessons and has a cross-curricular skills-base ,which is fully resourced and referenced to the National Curriculum and Primary Framework, and requires no specialist rugby knowledge from the teacher. The project feature important milestones in the Clubs history such as the 1937 Cup Final Apperance (pictured) and the mid 1990’s struggle to join Superleague as well as looking at the club today , looking at the day to day life of both the club coach ,Barry Eaton and Groundsman,Mark Heap.

In February The Cougar Pride centre was awarded the QISS kite mark at emerged level. This shows that we are able to deliver Quality In Study Support, to our local schools.  We hope to continue our development to establish our work in this field.   The certificate was presented to Liz Kidman the Centre Manager at the Playing for Success National Conference by Olympic Rower Sir Matthew Pinsent.

After the succesful Secondary Courses held this year ,8 of our previous students have joined us as peer mentors ,for one night a week working with Primary School Groups. Abbie , Ellie, Jodie ,Freya ,Emily ,Shannon and Connie all year 9 students at Oakbank have proved a major hit with our primaries as well as gaining valuable skills for themselves .

‘I liked the stadium , the laptops ,and meeting new people and making new friends’ Nessfield pupil Summer 2009

The works of the Great British Playwright will be brought to a wider primary school audience this Autumn as the Cougar Pride Centre holds it first ever ‘Shakespeare Festival’. The Centre has enjoyed offering a different Shakespeare experience to our students since we opened. The Shakespeare workshops proved so successful that last year we offered extra times to local schools and 6 took up the opportunity.Seeing so many students gaining so much from the event has encouraged us at the Cougar Pride Centre to offer the chance for more students across Bradford, to experience this unique way of looking at Shakespeare. Keiron Jones from Bath delivers the Shakespeare works events for us and this year he is bringing a team of actors so we can expand the event & we’ll be running 10 workshops over 5 days for 100 students at a time.Festival events in 4 venues will take palce across the Bradford District, East Riddlesden Hall,Victoria Hall (Saltaire), Parkland School and Future House. nce copy of Shakespeare Works to show the students the Shakespeare Works DVD before they arrive. There are follow up activities on the DVD for when the students return to school. Each workshop will seestudents actively get involved using drama to understand the works of the great playwright,with the finale of a group presentation of Romeo and Juliet (abridged !), complete with full Elizabethan audience participation . The Cougar Pride Centre has worked in partnershipp with University of the First Age (Bfd), Serco, Playing for Success and Keighley Cougars RLFC to bring this unique opportunity to Year 6 Students throughtout the district.

Cougar Prides own version of TV’s ‘X -Factor ‘ took place over the Summer Term as students from Oakbank tried out the music business. Aided by guest music teacher Karen Ballantine for the term, students got to grips with learning the basics of electric guitar ,keyboard and drums ,as well as songwriting and vocal skills ,with both bands getting the chance to cut their own CD in Greenheads state of the art recording studio. Students also took on the backstage roles as well, designing band images,logos and publicity materials for their two bands, ‘Lunacy , and ‘’The Thursdays ‘. As well as performing their compositions at the Centres official launch , they also put on a special performance in front of invited parents and friends ,who were also treated to a special preview of the Bands own music videos ,created from footage of their time spent at the centre.

Session attendance data 100% 75% 50% 25% 0% Primary Y6

Primary Y5 Secondary y8

75% or less 87.5% attendance 100% attendance 345 students attended the Cougar Pride Centre in 2008/09 with the vast majority gaining a Cougar Pride T-shirt for full attendance Percentage Attendance figures by Year group

Percentage

100 75 50 25 0 Primary Y6

Primary Y5

Secondary y8

Students prove by high levels of attendance that coming to the Cougar Pride Centre is worthwhile for them

Ethnicity of students attending the Cougar Pride Centre Secondary y8

Primary Y5

Primary Y6 0

20

Dual heritage British Asian

40

60

80

European white British White

Students from a variety of bckgrounds attend the Cougar Pride Centre

Students' achievement during the year they were at the Cougar Pride Centre

y6math

y5eng

y6 eng Free School Meal student attainment

0

22.5

45.0

same

negative

67.5

90.0

positive

100% Attenders attainment 2008/9

same plus a level

plus a 1/3

plus 2/3

Attainment for 100% attendees compared to all PfS students 60

45

30

15

0 same 100% attendees

plus a level

plus 2 All PfS students

same

plus a level

plus 2

To apply to QISS to take the centre to Established Level. Develop effective peer mentoring with Oakbank School To run a successful Shakespeare Festival and work towards ensuring funding to make it into an annual event

To run a joint day time Cougar Pride/ Cougars Community Foundation Project.

Primary Eastburn - Keighley St Andrews-Worth Valley -Holycroft East Morton -St Andrews Victoria -Eastwood-Myrtle Park-Harden Priestthorpe-Shipley CE-Crossflatts-Haworth Shipley CE-Wycliffe-Ingrow-Guardhouse-Lees

Secondary Oakbank-Beckfoot-Greenhead

KEIGHLEY COUGARS RLFC COUGAR PARK ROYD INGS AVENUE KEIGHLEY WEST YORKSHIRE BD21 4DS Tel 01535 606044 email [email protected] www.cougarpride.info