AS PART of the national 10th anniversary of the Playing for Success (PfS) programme, 21 centres based within London and the South East region got together to organise the Playing for Success
Southern Region 10 Year Celebration Event at the Brit Oval, home to Surrey County Cricket Club.

Leyton Orient Community Sports Programme (LOCSP) has its PfS centre in the main stand at the Matchroom Stadium, which is run by centre manager Andree Selner.

The centre has over the years opened its doors to thousands of young people who attend a short course in their own time after school. Students from local school Dawlish Primary were lucky enough to be chosen to represent LOCSP at the Oval after showing just how sensible and hard working they could be in a previous course.

They joined over 300 other young learners aged between 9-14 for a day of innovative and exciting learning opportunities including creating a fashion outfit, ground tours, Literacy Buzz words, dance and drama workshops, cricket coaching, video/image manipulation, team building exercises, maths in cricket and much more.

"We've done many different workshops and many different activities," explained Michaela 11from Dawlish Primary School. "We've played lots of game and had lots of fun, my favourite was drama. We have been coming to Leyton for eight weeks and when you are learning and having fun at the same time it's enjoyable."

"I liked it when we took the photo in the stadium at the end as we started doing the Mexican Wave," said Nikkida, 11, also from Dawlish Primary School. "I like Playing for Success because you got to do all sorts of fun stuff and are learning at the same time."

For Andree, the day proved to be a great success.

"It's lovely to come to a conference with lots of children," she explained. "To have kids involved rather than just adults and to have them all mixing together with other groups is great.

"They have all improved their communication skills through the drama workshops as well as socialising with other PfS groups from around London.

"The day started with drama sessions, we then made podcasts and a radio show about healthy eating on Apple Macs, before finishing off with a ground tour.

"We hope that today is the first of many and won't have to wait 10 years until the next one!"

The event marked what is hoped to be a new way of working across clubs and centres, bringing together different young people to experience the unique excitement of sport and the enjoyment of PfS.

PfS is a successful partnership between sporting clubs, Local Education Authorities, and the Department for Education and Skills. Proven to motivate learners to perform better in literacy, numeracy and ICT, this event showcased how well this mix of education and sport has continued to evolve and grow, for over 10 years.

For more information about LOCSP please call 020 8556 5973 or email enquiries@locsp.org