Odds on for learning success
Released: 11 June 2007
Children are odds on for classroom success after the opening of a state-of-the-art study centre at Wolverhampton Racecourse. The facility offers young people from schools across the city the chance to combine learning with the excitement of the horse racing world.
Wolverhampton sporting heroes Denise Lewis and Vikram Solanki along with the city’s own business guru and tv star Ruth Badger officially opened the centre on Monday 11 June. They were joined by Grand National jockey Carrie Ford.
The centre forms part of the Government’s Playing for Success scheme and is jointly funded by Wolverhampton City Council, the Department for Education & Skills and Arena Leisure - the owners of Wolverhampton Racecourse. The partners have worked together on the project for 12 months to produce a truly impressive facility.
The Playing for Success scheme uses sporting venues to motivate children and encourage them to learn. Centres are aimed at pupils from both primary and secondary schools who lack confidence in normal lessons and would benefit from a different style of learning.
Arena Leisure has provided a prime spot at the course in what used to be the trainers’ restaurant. It comes complete with a balcony that overlooks the home straight and offers a view across the entire course. It has been completely refurbished and fitted with a chill-out room, computer suite and learning area.
The rooms have been decorated with horse racing-inspired murals which were painted by schoolchildren from the All Saints, Blakenhall and Parkfield areas who worked with a local artist.
Sessions at the study centre take place after normal school hours between 3pm and 6pm – so racing will often be taking place at the same time. Pupils who would benefit from using the facility are recommended by their school.
The centre is staffed by qualified teachers who will make use of the latest classroom technology as well as the racecourse environment around them to encourage learning. Each pupil will have a television quiz show-style voting machine on their desk which teachers will ask them to use to indicate whether they have understood a particular topic. There are also digital movie and animation cameras to produce podcasts and recordings.
Councillor Paul Brookfield, Wolverhampton City Council cabinet member for children and young people, said: “The council is delighted to have teamed up with Wolverhampton Racecourse and the DFES to deliver this exciting project. This impressive centre will allow children from across the city to learn in a motivational environment which is staffed by excellent teachers and kitted out with the latest technology.”
David Roberts, managing director of Wolverhampton Racecourse, said: “We got involved with Playing for Success with the aim of working with the local community; we wanted to involve Wolverhampton children with the racecourse and provide them with opportunities and experiences that they would not normally encounter.
“We want them to see that there’s a whole new world to partake in with opportunities at every level; it needn’t always be about qualifications but about having the determination and the desire to succeed. It’s this determination that we hope to encourage in the children that attend the centre.”
Issued by the press office.