Study Support Centre

Part of the Government’s drive to raise educational standards has been to introduce an initiative called ‘Playing for Success', which supports the development of after school study support centres at professional sports clubs. The Department for Children, Schools and Families, Manchester United Foundation and Trafford Council have joined together in partnership to create the Manchester United Study Support Centre at Old Trafford.

The centre is situated in Old Trafford's Museum  and offers local young people a well equipped and motivational environment , where individuals are welcomed and encouraged.

The centre was identified as ‘being more effective in promoting a lasting impact on the longer term improvements in pupils’ attainment’, in a recent  evaluation by the National Foundation for Educational Research on behalf of the DfCSF. The results showed clear evidence of significant long term improvements and highlighted the study support centre's close liaison with local authority consultants and schools.  The centre gained Quality in Study Support status at established level in July 2006. 

The centre works in the following areas:

Playing for Success
Playing for Success sessions focus on the development of the key skills of literacy, numeracy and ICT for young people from Trafford’s schools at Key Stages 2 and 3. Stadium tours, player interviews, interactive ‘touch screen’ computers and physical challenges in the museum act as an exciting stimulus for both written and number work.

Conservation and Ecology
Conservation and ecology projects in partnership with the Cheshire Wildlife Trust during the school holidays are extremely popular with junior schools. Activity based visits to the local ecology park and the ‘Man-U-Moss’ wildlife area at the club’s training ground have helped raise environmental awareness and led to an increased understanding of biodiversity.

Dreams and Teams
Our association with the British Council’s, ‘Dreams and Teams’ project has seen the development of video conferencing sessions with students from the Internet Centre at Red Star Belgrade in Serbia. Whilst a ‘Playing for Success – International’ project during 2004 culminated with a group of young people and staff from the study centre visiting their ‘Citizenship’ project partners in Malaysia. The centre will maintain these links to develop young peoples’ communication skills and examine their role as global citizens.   Five Japanese undergraduate students from Tokyo assisted children as learning mentors at the centre as part of their English language course, as a result of links with Manchester University’s ‘Japan Centre’.

Aim Higher
The centre has taken a key role in the development, implementation and embedding of study support within the new quality standard framework across Trafford. New local authority ‘Aim Higher’ initiatives have seen key stage 3 and 4 students involved in exciting ecology and art sessions based at the centre.