CueZone Into Schools – Case Studies

The WPBSA’s CueZone Into Schools programme continues to go from strength to strength, encouraging more and more children across the UK to take an interest in snooker.

The scheme also helps mathematical skills using Functional Snooker, a game which assigns different values to each ball.

The programme was launched in 2013 by snooker legend Steve Davis who is the ambassador for the scheme, along with WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson and Head of Coaching Chris Lovell, and aims to get 10,000 children playing the sport.

These two case studies show how Snooker Into Schools can be effective in different centres of learning:

Salford City College

Neil Hayden is a newly qualified WPBSA World Snooker Community and Schools Coach. “I recently took charge of my first lessons of Functional Snooker,” he said. “These lessons took place at our City Skills Sixth Form Centre where I did 22 lessons over two weeks with Entry and Foundation level learners of functional skills.

“The lessons were enjoyed by both male and female learners. Over the two weeks they were attended by 151 pupils in all. This project was a huge success in terms of the learners gaining knowledge of snooker and how the game is played, while using the game to help improve their functional maths.

“The Functional Snooker programme will be used as a tool to engage the young people of our local High Schools when we run the carousel of sports events over the course of the year. The feedback from our own experience has been superb and is very useful in taking this forward within Salford City College. We are only using the City Skills Sixth Form Centre this year to pilot Functional Snooker, but having spoken to various functional skills teachers across all our five centres, they are keen to use Functional Snooker within their centres next academic year.

“We are adding one further male and one female member of staff from the Sports Development Department to undertake the WPBSA World Snooker Community and Schools Coaching Qualification in the spring of 2014. This will enable us to expand the delivery of Functional Snooker.”

Passmores Academy

Passmores Academy in Harlow, Essex is one of the pioneering institutes in the CueZone into Schools project.

The Academy recently organised an ‘Aspire Day’ which was dedicated to snooker. The objective of the day was to introduce students (pictured) to the sport through a range of different activities, with particular emphasis on the relationship between snooker and maths.

A total of 210 Year Eight students took part in the day and all enjoyed a varied range of activities. WPBSA World Snooker Coach Andrew Green, who is based in Essex, was present throughout the day and ran the CueZone, giving coaching on the tables provided to all schools taking part in the programme. In addition to playing, students had to design snooker arenas, create tournaments, learn about the rules and history of the sport and complete exercises all dedicated to teaching literacy and maths using snooker as a theme.

Gareth Walsh, PE Teacher at Passmores, is responsible for the snooker programme and was delighted at how well the day went. “The understanding of the students has improved dramatically, and following the Aspire Day we now have many more children wanting to be part of the clubs,” he said.

“Functional Snooker engages the students who struggle in lessons. They are more willing to learn maths using a practical resource and snooker has helped greatly to improve this.”

To find out how to get your school involved in the programme, contact [email protected]