Coaches from Bath Rugby Club’s Outreach Programme are making sure everything adds up for pupils at St Margaret’s Preparatory School, both on and off the pitch.
Pupils at the school in Calne are some of the first in Wiltshire to benefit from the initiative which combines sporting skills with teaching maths. Bath Rugby’s Schools Co-ordinator, Lewis Palmer, said, “The scheme is aimed at primary school children in Years 3 and 4. Tom Fogerty and Jack Howden have been working with St Margaret’s pupils and staff. They spend part of the time organising tag rugby and the rest delivering maths lessons that involve rugby-based questions. For example, we might use the rugby bonus point scoring system to get children to work out a wide range of different questions.
“The rugby element makes it more interesting for them and it seems to work; all of the boys and girls at St Margaret’s have seemed to really enjoy it.”
St Margaret’s Head of Sport, Dan Dury, has been delighted with the progress children have made in both the rugby and maths elements of the course.
At the end of the five-week programme, the children were awarded certificates. Mr Palmer hopes that more primary schools in the county will also take up the opportunity, made possible by club sponsorship from Avon Rubber.