The description below is an example of a project currently being conducted in the Horsham area to improve the core net/wall skills of 4-7 year olds. For information on what core skills work is going on in other parts of Sussex contact your local school sports partnership manager (visit links page) or contact Ian Ford on 01403-215634 or Ian.ford@horsham.gov.uk for tips on how you might be able to lever similar work in your area.


THE IDEA
To improve the net and wall sport core skills of KS1 children (years R, 1+2) through a structured, high quality delivery programme. This will enable more children to successfully progress into racquet and other sport pathways in the future should they show an interest in doing so.

The project is being run by Horsham Leisure Link in partnership with the Central Sussex Schools Sports Partnership.

COACH
Head Coach for the project is Tessa Walder. Tessa is a fully licensed and highly experienced LTA Tennis Coach (Development Level) for Horsham Tennis Club, running its mini-tennis programme and is also qualified and experienced in swimming and trampoline coaching. Tessa has accumulated 20 years' experience in the leisure industry and used to work for HDC's Leisure Link team in a full-time capacity. Tessa also holds a current CRB check and is first aid qualified.

PERIOD
The project will initially run in the period Sept 08 to Easter 09. More funding is being sought however to hopefully continue beyond this period.

DURATION
Programmes can run between 5 and 10 weeks depending on the needs of the particular school.

In terms of session length we would recommend 30 minutes per session for reception and year 1 children and 45 minutes for year 2's although again there is scope for some small variation depending on each school's needs.

Minimum deployment to be two sessions back-to-back, although for outlying areas - for viability reasons - we would be asking for a minimum of three sessions back-to-back (or near back-to-back).

Maximum take-up per school to be four programmes each within the Sept-Easter period.

TIMING
Tessa has availability to fit in curricular and/or curriculum sessions along the following lines:

Mondays 11.30-4.30pm
Tuesdays 12noon-3pm
Wednesdays 9am-3pm
Thursdays 3-4.30pm
Fridays 12-4.30pm

SUPERVISION RATIOS
The aim is to run programmes to a very high quality in order to achieve the desired outcomes. We are also keen to leave a legacy of improved school staff knowledge and experience of delivery good practice and ideas in relation to this type of work.

Given the young age of the children we would require that a participating school commit a teacher or teaching assistant to assisting at each session. If group numbers were above 20 we would require that there are a minimum of two assistants (second assistant could be, say, a parent). HDC Leisure Link would be able to provide sports coach-trained assistants at the rate of £15 hour if necessary.

Note that schools may decide that rather than working with whole class groups it may be better to split groups into two halves to rotate between a teacher's lesson and Tessas' core skills session.

COST
Tessa's Head Coach service will be FREE OF CHARGE. The only staffing charge would be for Leisure Link providing assistants if they were needed.

FACILITIES
The programme is best delivered outside on a playground to gain the benefit of space but Tessa is experienced enough to adapt in the smaller indoor space of a school hall if necessary (eg because of bad weather). Classroom space however would be too limiting to run meaningful physical activity for this kind of programme. If there is no indoor cover available the sessions would need to be cancelled, preferably in advance where possible and the programme re-jigged to adapt to the loss of the session(s).

INDICATIVE PROGRAMME
Based on a full 10-week programme and subject to change based on school-coach agreement and the needs of the children in each group

Week 1 - Core Skills Assessment (Baseline Data)
Week 2 - Ball Tracking and Striking
Week 3 - Balancing Your Body and a Ball
Week 4 - Movement, Agility, Speed
Week 5 - Throwing and Catching (including Depth Perception)
Week 6 - Controlling the Power of Hitting and Throwing
Week 7 - Stability and Stretching
Week 8 - Forming Strokes
Week 9 - Taster of Badminton, Squash, Tennis and Table Tennis
Week 10 - Fun Competition (including Final Assessment)

OTHER
All equipment will be provided, although we may ask to borrow general resources like benches and hoops from time to time.

Tessa is quite happy to make a pre-programme visit to discuss each school's needs and circumstances.