SOCATOTS Northstaffs Receives £50,000 Funding
SOCATOTS Northstaffs are delighted to announce that they have obtained further funding which will enable them to deliver more sessions to children throughout Newcastle and The Staffordshire Moorlands. The funding will ensure sisters Lynnette and Joanne will be delivering a total of 50+ sessions until April 2010 in Newcastle and The Staffordshire Moorlands.
The funding has been provided by Community & Learning Partnerships to ensure that children have the best possible start in life. On SOCATOTS Northstaffs latest success, Carl Robinson said: "The phone has not stopped, once the word is out the sessions are filling within days with many sessions developing waiting lists within a week".
The family learning programme uses the medium of football to ensure that the parents are engaged in the activity.
The funding has been obtained because the programme assists with family learning, tackling obesity, structured exercise, parental involvement and meets the “Every Child Matters Agenda” meeting Local Area Agreements Targets.
******
by Katie Baldwin - Yorkshire Evening Post
They’ve only just learned to walk – but tiny tots have been practising their ball skills with model mum Nell McAndrew.
The Belle Isle beauty took time out from caring for her baby son Devon to support Leeds-based Socatots. And she said she was already thinking of taking her newborn to the pre-school football skills training sessions when he's older. Nell joined Socatots members at Leeds Metropolitan University's Headingley campus, where the youngsters showed her the games they have learnt. The 33-year-old said having Devon had made her especially interested in the scheme.
"This is fantastic," she said. "It's not about taking your kids there and leaving them, it's really nice that parents can be doing activities with their children. "Devon can start next year and they have given me all the information. "It's also getting kids into being active from an early age."
Nell said she loved being a mum to Devon, who was born on August 24. "It's hard work but in a good way. I have just fallen more and more in love with him every day," she beamed. Two-year-old Molly Littlejohn was pleased to show Nell her kicking abilities.
Her mum Annelie Benzie, from Drighlington, said, "Socatots is fantastic and good fun. She is learning basic soccer skills which she enjoys." Pauline Gaskin, from Roundhay, said three-year-old son Joel had been attending Socatots for a year. "It's like starting his education a little bit early. They are doing things like colours and numbers," she said.
Socatots is aimed at children aged from six months old and develops balance, co-ordination, numeracy, literacy and colour identification as well as football skills. Since it began in 2003, 200 Socatots centres have opened around the world. Simon Clifford, founder of Socatots, said he was pleased to get Nell on board. "She's a great person and has also kept her feet on the ground," he said. Mr Clifford added that parents had told him Socatots helped with their children's development. "I was a teacher for five years and what interests me is that some of the children are having greater success with their reading and their numeracy."
Leeds Met's Carnegie Faculty of Sport and Education is an academic partner of Socatots and associate dean Helen Whitrod Brown said it would enable them to follow the development of children taking part.