Skills & Learning Centre
The Fulham Football Club Skills and Learning Centre has been open since September 2000 and is an established Playing for Success Centre. Playing for Success (PfS) is a Department for Children, Families and Schools (DCFS) Study Support initiative to create learning opportunities in out-of-school-hours to raise pupil attainment.
Hammersmith and Fulham Local Authority (LA) and Fulham Football Club are working together in partnership with the DCFS and local businesses to provide pupils with opportunities to develop their key skills in literacy, numeracy and ICT.
Since opening, the Centre has worked with approximately 2,500 young people from the southern half of Hammersmith and Fulham.
It provides a 10-week learning programme, which challenges young people through a range of exciting activities and involves the completion of the unique FFC workbook “Skillful”. The learning programme has been designed to compliment the National Curriculum, and the programme aims to motivate young people to learn, increase their confidence and raise their self-esteem, as well as raising academic achievement.
Young people are encouraged to monitor their own progress by setting themselves targets and keep weekly records of their progress. Reports are compiled on pupil achievement, outcomes and future aims as well as the comments and feedback from users.
We celebrate achievements are at the end of each term by awarding prizes and certificates are awarded to young people for their efforts. Players and officials from the LA and Fulham Football Club also attend these events.
The new centre is equipped with state of the art ICT equipment. A fully qualified teacher manages the centre with the support of study support assistants who take on the role as mentors and generally assist within the Centre. An ICT technician is available to oversee all areas of ICT.
Sessions take place during the daytime for young people with special educational needs and an outreach programme has also been set up to work with school groups that are unable to attend sessions during the daytime. The centre offers programmes on anti-racism and citizenship in conjunction with the FFC Community Sports Trust.
Examples of current projects:
Fulham FC’s Hameur Bouazza & Elliot Omozusi attended an educational player profile presentation at Craven Cottage at 4pm on Tuesday 16 October. Pupils from three local primary schools had been researching and compiling player profile projects at the Club’s Skills & Learning Centre. The pupils had the prospect of presenting their work, which aims to highlight cultural diversity, to a panel of judges consisting of Hameur Bouazza; Elliot Omozusi; Senior Marketing Executive for FEXCO MT, Sebastian Farina & Community Sports Trust Manager, Gary Mulcahey.
The winning team received £500 for their school, Fulham merchandise and match tickets were be presented to the runner-up and third placed schools.
On the day, Queens Manor Primary School school’s came out tops. The successful day was featured on Match of The Day and on Sky Sports 1 for an international audience. The young people who won the competition namely, went on to receive their prizes at the Fulham V Derby Match in front of 22000+ spectators at Craven Cottage.
After Tuesday’s training session Simon Davies popped down to the Fulham Football Club Skills and Learning Centre at Craven Cottage to help the primary school children from nearby Queens Manor School complete their afternoon’s work.
After being introducing, Whites midfielder Davies fielded questions ranging from his best friend at Fulham (Alexey Smertin) to his favourite team as a child (Manchester United).
Simon’s answers completed the children’s player profile worksheets before photos of the group were taken in the Johnny Haynes Stand.