Sport for all: children from around 40 Croydon primaries s are invited to the Whitgift community summer school for a week of sport, academic and creative activities
Palace for Life, Crystal Palace FC’s charity arm, is taking part in a community summer school being staged in South Croydon next week, with club coaches staging a football festival as the grand finale for more than 150 children from local primary schools.
Now in its seventh year, the community summer school invites nine- and 10-year-olds from around 40 primary schools across the borough to spend a week at Whitgift, taking part in academic, creative and sporting activities, and getting a feel for what school life must be like at a large independent school.
The community summer school will see 168 children follow a timetable that includes computing to crafting, economics to Japanese and science to dance.
“The classes are all delivered by Whitgift School staff and supported by an enthusiastic team of Sixth Form volunteers,” according to a spokesperson for the Whitgift Foundation, the charity which this year is funding the summer school directly for the first time.
The partnership between the Whitgift Foundation and Palace for Life marks “an exciting new chapter for the community summer school”, with professional coaches from Palace for Life also involved.
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James Jenden, the education manager at Palace for Life, said: “We will be present all week, delivering fun sport games in the sports hall, with Friday being the festival containing a range of fun football and sport-themed activities, including mini-matches, arts and crafts, challenges, shooting stations, games, and a workshop looking at key life skills.
“We’re really looking forward to the event. It should be fun and engaging.”
Roisha Hughes, the Whitgift Foundation’s CEO, said: “We’re delighted to be funding this project for the first time.
“Giving children the chance to try new activities, learn new skills and enjoy different experiences can be genuinely transformative. It’s about broadening horizons, building confidence and helping young people realise that there are many different paths open to them.”
Laura Jones, the Foundation’s primary project coordinator, said: “Every day, through the primary project, I watch children try something new or find a passion they didn’t know they had. The summer school will ignite something in each of the children and will change that summer for them, especially for children who don’t like school; it gives them a different way to learn and be creative.”
- The community summer school runs for invited children from Monday July 27 to Friday July 31 at Whitgift School, Haling Park, South Croydon
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