The King’s Lynn Stars Study Centre as we are better known opened its doors to students just after the Easter break in April 2006. We are working in close partnership with our local speedway team the King’s Lynn Money Centre Stars. Buster (Keith), Cheryl and son Jonathan Chapman are the owners of the Norfolk Arena and co managers. The Norfolk Arena where the Speedway team race is very much a family owned and run business. We have a full time manager/teacher, a part time teacher, two part time study coaches/bus escorts, a part time youth worker and an administrator. We are also working with the local Millennium Volunteers. "In a busy season of high profile Premier League races the riders and managers have always made time for the young people and staff that attend and work at the Study Centre." The centre is laid out on two floors and consists of 12 fabulous newly installed P.C s, 7 laptops and 2 interactive whiteboards. When you walk through the door the colours and the theme of the centre hits you. The walls are a golden yellow and very bright, the carpets, seats, blinds and chairs are all in royal blue which of course is the colours of our Speedway team. The walls have chequered flag notice boards and tyre rimmed spanner and screwdriver clocks on them. All through the centre are photographs of our many children enjoying their time at the Arena meeting managers or riders, sitting on the bikes, watching and really enjoying the speedway or of the visits made by the riders and managers to the Study Centre. On the opening night owner Buster came to the centre with Kevin Doolan vice Captain of the team and Kevin’s bike and parked it in the middle of the lower floor of the Study Centre. The children were completely over awed, they asked lots of very funny but relevant questions and enjoyed sitting on the bike for the cameras so they could take their photographs into school and show their friends. This has very much been the way things have continued. In a busy season of high profile Premier League races the riders and managers have always made time for the young people and staff that attend and work at the Study Centre. We are invited to attend the meetings and to go during the day to tour the arena and interview everyone down there. Events Manager Jonathan, Buster, Team Captain Tomas Topinka and riders such as Kevin Doolan and Trevor Harding always try to make themselves available even though the riders fly off to various countries during the week in order to ride in Speedway events there. The students take this information back to the Study Centre and apply it to their work. They have written out transcripts of interview questions, made computer profiles of their favourite riders, designed new look arenas and worked out fuel consumption and prices including percentage cuts etc for the Pit Stop Café, the list is endless. All the time they are improving their self esteem and confidence, becoming quite proficient on the computers and really getting the wow factor from the link with Speedway which goes on to improve the majority of the students motivation and attitudes when they return to school. The Study Centre has been a huge success in the town with local schools. We started with four primary schools over four nights delivering a Speedway linked Playing for Success programme, we are now booked for the autumn term five nights a week and have nearly filled our evenings for the Spring of 2007. In addition to this we are now trying to meet the demand that has become apparent by offering more specialised and tailored programmes during the daytime and although we have to make a small charge for this service to cover our costs we have already started taking bookings. Schools we are currently working with and will continue to work with in the future on the PFS programme are:- Howard Junior School, Fairstead Community Primary School, Greyfriars Primary School, North Wootton Community School, St Michael’s CE Primary School, the Park High School, Whitefriars CE Primary School, West Lynn Primary School, St Clement’s High School and King Edward VII School. I am fully expecting this list to continue to grow.

"On the opening night owner Buster came to the centre with Kevin Doolan vice Captain of the team and Kevin’s bike and parked it in the middle of the lower floor of the Study Centre." "The children were completely over awed, they asked lots of very funny but relevant questions and enjoyed sitting on the bike for the cameras so they could take their photographs into school and show their friends." King's Lynn Stars "We are invited to attend the meetings and to go during the day to tour the arena and interview everyone down there."

"Students really get the wow factor from the link with Speedway which goes on to improve the majority of the students motivation and attitudes when they return to school." If you have any other ideas for courses/ sessions then please get in touch and we will try to develop one to suit you! For further details regarding any of the above courses please contact the centre on 01553 773565, or e-mail: maxine.mace@ norfolk.gov.uk.

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