Hallmoor School is a ’special’ school in Birmingham, addressing the educational needs of children with a variety of ’special needs’ ranging from emotional and behavioural needs to learning difficulties. In partnership with Dreamstore, GHOFMidlands delivered an EAZ day, to followed by an angling ‘Taster Day’, for a total of 26 students. The EAZ was planned to assist the pupils in their numeracy work and provide them with a new recreational experience.
Turves Green Boys School is a main stream secondary school in the south west of Birmingham. In partnership with Dreamstore, GHOF Midlands delivered an EAZ day to 72 Year 7 students to help them with their numeracy work. View the related Dreamstore Gallery.
This was followed then by a set of three angling ‘Taster Days’ providing students with a new experience. View the related Dreamstore Gallery.
View the related Dreamstore Gallery
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Penn Hall School is a Wolverhampton Local Authority Community Special School for 80 pupils aged 3 – 19 years. The school is a designated Specialist SEN School offering high quality provision for pupils with physical and sensory needs. Dreamstore Education Action Zone was invited in to deliver its maths worksheets and to provide a fun learning environment for almost half the school.
This was the first time volunteers from Birmingham Midshires helped the EAZ, with Susan Stone and Leigh McDonald joining the British Disabled Angling Association team for the day. The day was an experience for everyone and a day is planned for an outdoor event for the pupils, probably spring 2008.
Richard Walker, a teacher at McMillan Primary School, Manningham, Bradford, gained his Level 2 Certificate in Coaching Angling at the Dreamstore Academy 2006. He saw the advantage of Dreamstore Education Action Zone for the Linking Schools Project in Bradford, which aims to improve community cohesion through learning, using outdoor and adventurous activity. The Education Action Zone was used part of pupils linking journey where integrated teams from two very different parts of Bradford could learn through a number of challenges.
Margaret McMillan School was joined by Lees Primary School from Howarth in a fun EAZ day. The pupils from Margaret McMillan School then went on an outdoor angling trip 17 July. This extended the classroom environment programme that Richard Walker has developed as part of curriculum activity, using the angling environment to make learning relevant to his pupils.
The Sincil School, Lincoln was opened in 2006 as a community special school catering for pupils with behavioural, social and emotional difficulties. The Dreamstore Education Action Zone was at the school for the day. Around 30 pupils at Sincil learned the basics of angling in the morning. The worksheets being used were later used for Maths classes.
A number of the older pupils then helped the EAZ team to provide a fun afternoon for the pupils of neighbouring SEN school Queen’s Park. Queen’s Park caters for pupils with learning disability. A number of the peer coaches again worked with the EAZ team when it returned for the outdoor event at the local Fenn Lakes 28 September. Again, pupils from both Sincil School and Queen’s Park were given the opportunity to take part in an angling event; this time with real fish.
St Bernadette’s Catholic Prinary School requested that the DEAZ should be used as an aid to Year 6 children engaging postively with numeracy. The DEAZ continues to be a popular way of encouaging young people to take a greater interest in mathematics, through a thoroughly enjoyable angling experience.
Miss Jacqueline Ryan of St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School wrote her thanks on behalf of the school:
I am writing to express my thanks to your organisation, for the excellent session that you provided on Wednesday…
The activities were very interactive and they gave the children an opportunity to practically practice their mathematical skills and concepts. The session has enabled the children’s understanding further. Their obvious enjoyment of mathematical and fishing content was evident throughout and the children as a result have not only benefited from the mathematical exposure but have been exposed the activity of fishing (many commenting that they are going to fish with family members now).
Again many thanks for providing this session for our Year 6 children.
And some comments from Year 6 pupils at St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School, Sophie and Andrew:
Dear fishing people, We had a great time playing and learning with all the activities that you provided. The games were really fun as well! We just want to thank you for a lovely day; it really was a fun way to do a numeracy lesson. We want you to come back soon so we can have a great time again. We liked the bit when we had to get a real fishing rod and had to get it in the circles 1 to 5. I learnt so much about fishing and I would like to do it again. In addition, I also liked to the way you had to throw the balls into the basket (but I missed a couple).
Please come back soon. If you can’t come back to us I think the next school that you visit is really lucky!
Calthorpe Specialist Sports College caters for children with a wide range of educational difficulties, ranging from moderate, severe and complex needs. In addition, some may have specific physical, sensory, behavioral or autistic conditions, all of which may require additional adult support or specialised facilities.
Wilson Stuart School in Erdington, Birmingham, opened its doors to the annual Festival of Challenges on 18 May. The Festival of Challenges brings together SEN and mainstream schools to take part in a series of learning activities. SEN schools involved included Wilson Stuart, Hallmoor, Fox Hollis, Braidwood and Hodge Hill. Mainstream schools included Queensbridge School and brought young Sports Leaders from Bishop Vesey’s and Arthur Terry schools.
For the first time, the Festival included Dreamstore’s Education Action Zone. With the help and support of Sports leaders, the British Disabled Angling Association’s coaching team worked with over 70 pupils over the course of 6 hours. It was a great day and everyone had an enjoyable time, proving that fun and learning can be natural partners.
DEAZ had been tried and proven successful for mainstream school pupils with September’s visit to the Rednal Junior School. With the pilot for DEAZ underway, Get Hooked on Fishing Midlands was asked to support Numeracy Week at the Turves Green Girls’ School year 7. The school motto is ‘Educating Girls for the Future’ and January 2005 Chief Inspector’s report described it as ‘a particularly successful school.’
Dreamstore welcomed the opportunity to explore the versatility of DEAZ. The basic worksheets from our early sessions were developed to extend the value to a maths class using multiplication, weights, and basic calculations that could be used by the mathematics teachers in a variety of ways. The DEAZ hosted 60 pupils over two 2 hour morning sessions. Worksheets were completed at the DEAZ and all the maths was left for later classroom sessions.
Teachers welcomed the opportunity to make maths fun and that there was an experience to which the pupils could relate when doing the sums back in class. Another successful application for Dreamstore’s Education Action Zone.
The girls of Turves Green Girls’ School & Technology College had a great time with Dreamstore Education Action Zone, using DEAZ as part of its ‘numeracy week’.
Jessica
“My favourite bit was maggot alley.”
Katie
“1 liked collecting different balls from the different colours. Scoring the points in maggot alley was hard.”-
Lizzy
“Casting mat was really good, practising first and then having a proper go.”
Lily
“We had a laugh doing get hooked, the fishing game was good because it was like a mind game.”
Amy
“Get hooked on fish was fun because it was like fishing, it was difficult, but I enjoyed it.”
Rachel
I enjoyed the pole alley because we worked as a team.
Laura
“I liked the fish game the most, the one where you had all kinds of fish and you had to write the name and the weight of the fish down.”
Shamsa
“I enjoyed all of the activities because I was with my friends and I had fun, I enjoyed casting mat the most because I was good at it.”
Keeley
“I enjoyed all of the day.
2nd and 3rd of November saw the Dreamstore Education Action Zone back at Wilson Stuart Special School for the first of a full pilot for the DEAZ activities. Two days with years 3, 4, 5 and 6 on the Thursday and years 7, 8 and 10 on the Friday. This was larger than the first visit and we were able to use the new sports hall. Indoor angling activities are an ideal winter activity for all the pupils. Plans are now in place to develop contact with the network of special schools in the Birmingham area and roll DEAZ out across the region over the coming months.
Simon Harris sums up what DEAZ has meant to Wilson Stuart School and Sports College, Erdington, Birmingham.
Wilson Stuart School and Sports College’s relationship with Dreamstore and the British Disabled Angling Association has been an incredible adventure, enriching the curriculum we can offer to our pupils with the wonderful Education Action Zone (EAZ) days and our trips to the Albrighton fishing project.
The EAZ days are staffed by coaches who really understand the needs of our pupils and ensure that the maximum benefits come from each session, in terms of enjoyment and educationally. In addition to the essential fishing skills which are passed on to our pupils, the cross curricular aspects of the day, such as the conservation area, allow our pupils to realise that the enjoyment of the activity requires everyone on the planet to be good citizens and make sure that our rivers and ponds are not polluted.
Pupils who never dreamed it would be possible to catch a real fish have experienced the delight and tangible rewards of a day’s fishing at Albrighton. All pupils experienced a level of achievement on these days which is rarely matched in any of the activities we do across the whole school. This unprecedented success has led to a real interest in developing further opportunities, not only for pupils, but for their families also.
Our work with Dreamstore has been incredibly positive from start to finish and I hope that together we will be able to enrich the lives of many more young disabled people in the future. It has been an absolute pleasure!