For tonight’s match with Oldham Athletic we are excited to welcome three of our partner schools the game King’s Heath Academy, Whitehills Primary School and Sunnyside Primary Academy. We hope you all enjoy the game and experience.
These are three of many schools now actively working with the Northampton Town Community Trust following the growth from nine permanent schools to forty in the last year. This ensues a real positive case study completed last year (found on the Community Trust's YouTube Channel) of the impact our Education and Sports Mentor had within schools. Since then, schools have sought to access more of our programme, particularly during the pandemic with the curriculum focusing on ‘whole child’ impact through the relationship of our mentors and how they work to improve areas such as attendance, attainment, and behaviour of pupils.
Even when closed our staff continued to be a key members of school communities often working with the most vulnerable and key worker pupils. Another positive example of this was Education & Sports Mentor Joe Dillon, who began working with children remotely through zoom calls, delivering physical activity sessions and targeted mentoring support to his pupils across Raunds Park Infant & Woodford CE Primary School. This shows the effect of the mentors was still evident during this tough period with positive feedback from many parents.
"Good morning. Mason woke this morning and asked if he had a video call with Joe today😂👍 I said no that’s tomorrow he looked disappointed. We were outside yesterday for an hour and a half practicing the task Joe had set. Mason also requested a chicken roast dinner for tea last night with carrots and broccoli as they are Joe's favourite veg 💙👍 ."
Now that we have had a more normal start to the school year, we have been able to deliver even more of our engagement activities as part of the PASS (Partnership Associated Schools Scheme). This includes pupil visits to the stadium, the launch of our new Takeover Days in schools and access to national tournaments such as the EFL Kids/Girls Cup.
"We are really excited for the current academic year based on how things were last year, it is so positive to be able to see pupils, staff and parents accessing the games through our partnership programme as well as our up-and-coming local football school tournaments through the EFL. We are also seeing the continuous impact in schools and the effect that is having thanks to the growth of our team of Education & Sport Mentors," said Damon Fox the Community Trust's Business Development Manager.
If you would like to talk to us about your school or being involved in PASS please contact Damon at damon.fox@ntfc.co.uk