My colleague Kes Sowerby who is the manager of the Leeds United Learning Zone and the Hunslet Hawks Learning Centre sent me this e-mail...

"Chris, there was an article about the Leeds United Learning Zone outstanding pupil Vytautus Vaznys from Hugh Gaitskell Primary School in today's Yorkshire Evening Post. Vytautus, who has made outstanding progress through attending study support programmes at Hunslet Hawks Learning Centre and Leeds United Learning Zone, is pictured with the Lord Mayor, Cllr Jim McKenna, Carla Cantrell of Leeds Ladies, Lucas the Kop Kat and ex Leeds United FC skipper Brendan Ormsby.

The Lord Mayor was very supportive of the event, giving a great speech and asking for the opportunity to come down and work with pupils in the Learning Zone.

Kind Regards, Kes."

Kes and the team do a brilliant job as part of the fantastic 'Playing for Success' team who have made an incredible difference here in Leeds. Together with the other elements of our study support programme these colleagues are changing lives and reaching some of our young people who are in danger of disengaging with learning. The impact of these wonderful programmes is celebrated at each of our termly celebrations and our research shows that the literacy, numeracy and ICT gains for young people on these programmes is fantastic. It is important that we remember that our schools don't exist in isolation and to build brilliant provision and brilliant outcomes for all our children and young people we must carefully consider the bigger picture and refocus our energy and efforts to develop the team around the school to powerfully reach the child, the family and the community... and THINK TEAM!
Chris