CELEBRATING SUCCESS IN WALTHAM FOREST

LOCSP Press Release: Thursday 16th April 2009

CELEBRATING SUCCESS IN WALTHAM FOREST

Leyton, London – Leyton Orient Community Sports Programme (LOCSP) held its ‘Playing for Success’ (PfS) Celebration Evening at SCORE last Tuesday evening with seven schools from across Waltham Forest in attendance.

Pupils from South Grove Primary, Sybourn Primary, Thomas Gamuel Primary, Gwyn Jones Primary, St Mary's C of E VA Primary, Leytonstone Secondary and Connaught School for Girls Secondary were all present to pick up awards for work they have completed with the PfS and ‘Supporter to Reporter’ (S2R) programmes since the beginning of the year.

Special guest speaker Samantha Sifah, Community Engagement Manager (Olympics), London Development Agency was on hand before the ceremony with an Olympic site ‘Model Puzzle’ where she explained the phases of its legacy to those in attendance whilst also allowing them an opportunity to have their say on the plans and help shape its future.

Samantha then opened the ceremony with a small speech and presentation before handing over to Steve Futter, Senior Development Manager for Education & Lifelong Learning at the Football Foundation who gave an inspiring speech to those in attendance and stayed on stage to hand out awards and certificates.

Students from the S2R programme received recognition of time volunteered and excellence produced as part of the ‘I Make a Difference’ campaign which asks all those who live, work or go to school in Waltham Forest to nominate young people who make a difference to the community or to the lives of others.

Steve Futter, Senior Development Manager for Education & Lifelong Learning, Football Foundation said:

“The Football Foundation is proud to support and work with Leyton Orient Community Sports Programme, not least through the national Playing for Success and Radiowaves work that they do.

“Supporter to Reporter is a great way for young people to experience and get involved with the media world and Leyton Orient have really taken the project on as our central delivery partner in London. Some of the young reporters were here tonight and it was fantastic to see them in action.

“It was great to see such a vibrant evening, full of energy with parents, families, teachers and friends coming down to support those who have worked so hard the past term and since the beginning of the year.”

Andree Selner, Senior Education Development Officer, Leyton Orient Community Programme said:

“It was a great night seeing the two projects come together like this. Many of our young Supporter to Reporter students actually took part in the Playing for Success programme themselves a few years ago.

“It was also great to have Steve Futter here to award the students and give him the opportunity to see first hand how the Football Foundation backing has helped to fund these two highly successful programmes.”

For more information about the Leyton Orient Education Centre please contact Andree Selner on 020 8556 5973, email andree.selner@locsp.org or visit the website at www.locsp.org.

Editor’s Notes:
1. Leyton Orient Community Sports Programme currently have 16 fully trained ‘Supporter to Reporter’ media reporters who are actively reporting at sports and media events from a grassroots and amateur level up to fully professional, international level.

Students from Tom Hood, Frederick Bremer, George Mitchell and our Handball team have taken part so far.

Kane Shearing alias ‘Mr Exclusive’ is currently the top S2R sports reporter in the country for his daily stories and blogs on the www.radiowaves.co.uk/s2r website whilst Vhaigunthan Thankjarajah alias ‘E17 Reloaded’ is the Radiowaves website reporter of the month.

Recruits from Kelmscott School are currently undergoing training for their first matchday experience which will be reporting on the Leyton Orient v Northampton Town game on Saturday 18th April.

2. PfS is a successful partnership between Leyton Orient Community Sports Programme, Leyton Orient FC, Waltham Forest Local Authority, The Department for Children Schools and Families and the Football Foundation.

Proven to motivate learners to perform better in literacy, numeracy and ICT, the ten-week programme takes place daily for different schools around Waltham Forest in the Leyton Orient Community Sports Programme Education Centre (LOEC), a fully equipped state of the art ICT suite.

3. Both S2R and PfS are funded by the Football Foundation.