Another evening, another place... this time it was at the Long Room at the Headingley Carnegie Stadium. The Yorkshire County Cricket Club had invited me to their Presentation Evening to mark the end of the first ten week programme of "Playing for Success" at the Headingley Learning Centre... and it was packed!

The study support programme here in Leeds makes an incredible difference to huge numbers of young people... it works brilliantly, the impact is awesome and we have the evidence. Why does it work? Perhaps it's because young people choose to come in their own time that it has such a dramatic impact on young people's literacy, numeracy and ICT skills, on their confidence and self-esteem and on their ability to focus and work hard. Perhaps, it's because we have such a fantastic team of people working in study support led by Steve Smith, Mark Hopkins and their brilliant colleagues and supported by some wonderful volunteer mentors. Perhaps it's because of the pulling power ,for young people, of places like Yorkshire Cricket Club, Leeds Rhinos, Leeds United, Leeds Bradford Airport and the White Rose Centre.

I don't have all the answers but it's clearly doing something wonderful for young people in Leeds and I am truly grateful to everyone who has helped us make this happen... including our sponsors, the DfES, the schools and of course young people themselves and their parents and carers.
Chris