Big tick winner

Rangers Football club - The Rangers Study Support Centre

Merrill Lynch Education Award supported by the Department for Children, Schools and Families

Football has the ability to cut through many social barriers and reach excluded people, especially children. Rangers Football Club recognises this and utilises the passion that surrounds the Club to encourage future generations to achieve their full potential. The Club does this across a range of community initiatives, the most influential of which is the ground-breaking Rangers Study Support Centre.

Processes

The Rangers Study Support Centre, based in Rangers’ Ibrox Stadium, was launched in November 2001. Essentially the Centre is a high-tech classroom including a multi-media centre, equipped with the latest computers and modern teaching aids, as well as a reading zone, games zone and celebrity interview area.

The Centre is staffed by qualified teachers and support staff who work closely with Rangers employees. Students can enrol in a ten-week course in the Centre that is designed to enhance and complement the young people’s school work while also presenting them with new and exciting ways of learning.

Through debating sessions, interviews with players and tutorials in football business and marketing, students are encouraged to think for themselves and enjoy an exciting, interactive learning experience outside the usual classroom environment.

Impact

To date, 70 per cent of the pupils that attend the Centre every year have improved in numeracy and 80 per cent have improved in literacy.
Three hundred teachers have received training at the Centre to date.
One hundred and forty thousand separate visits will have been made to the Centre.
Research into the impact of the Centre has highlighted a range of the key benefits, including reduced absenteeism, increased motivation and enthusiasm and improved behaviour.
Feedback from teachers and parents has highlighted improved confidence and motivation in many of the children attending the centre, particularly those selected to participate for those reasons. Eighty per cent of teachers thought that pupils’ self-esteem and confidence had improved as a result of the programme.