NEWS ARCHIVE
College students put school pupils through their paces
Sport students from Cornwall College St Austell have been helping train a local primary school football team over the last few months to try to help them win some games. Tywardreath Primary School, near Par were on quite a losing streak of games before the sport students started to give them after school training, but since then their results have shown that the training seems to be working.
After three sessions the team notched up their first point by drawing a game. Since then they have also drawn more games.
“The students have definitely got better,” said Tom Vincent, 17, previously of Fowey Community College. “It’s been really good to coach the younger ones as they really seem to take on board what we are teaching them.”
Comments such as: "It's great having some new coaches helping us with our skills", "I can use what I have learnt in our practices to help me when we play matches", " I really enjoy it when our coaches join in the practice matches, they even remember all of our names!" can be heard from the pupils whose enthusiasm for football practice has certainly increased since the students have been helping out.
The sessions started with approximately eight children during the winter months but were up to a full nineteen this week. Peter Bray, Sports Co-ordinator at Tywardreath, added: "Having the students help out has given the pupils an opportunity to try out some new skills and has boosted their confidence significantly. It's like having four extra teachers on the practice pitch at the same time, and it's given the students an opportunity to manage and organise a large group of enthusiastic footballers!"
Ex professional footballer Mark Turner, who played for a host of clubs including Wolverhampton Wanderers and Northampton Town currently teaches the students on their Sport Activity Leadership Course at Cornwall College. He said: “This has really been a great opportunity for the students, some of them wish to go into professional coaching in the future and this experience will only benefit them.”
For more information about Cornwall College please call 0845 22 32 567, visit www.cornwall.ac.uk, or find us on Twitter @cornwallcollege.
