The aim of the Schools Development Scheme (SDS) is to establish the sport of fencing as an extra-curricular activity within every state school in the Chichester, area at no cost to pupils or to the schools involved. The project has been set up by Chichester Community Fencing Club (CCFC) and has only been made possible due to the great financial generosity of the trustees of the J Woodger Trust, to whom CCFC all those participating are indebted. The CCFC SDS is supported by the country’s leading fencing equipment suppliers, Leon Paul. In addition the scheme has had the valuable advice and guidance of Norman Randall of England Fencing and Professor of fencing, Jes Smith. One principal reason why CCFC was formed was to widen participation in fencing, especially within state schools, as prior to the formation of CCFC in 2006 very little effort was given to achieving this aim in our local community and fencing had mainly been practiced in public schools.
CCFC SDS offers every participating state primary school the opportunity to benefit from free use of fencing kit for up to 16 children per session. The equipment provided is from the Leon Paul Mini Fencing® range and is loaned by the scheme to each school at no cost to the school. The Leon Paul Mini Fence system is a new innovation in fencing using non-metal weapons to introduce children to the sport. To learn more about the advantages of Mini Fencing click here.
Leon Paul, at no cost to each school, will train a member of teaching staff (via a short 3 hour course) to use the Mini Fence® system in order for each participating school to start up its own Mini Fence® club. To find out more about the short training courses visit our Mini-Fence® Programme page (the first training course will be held on 03/11/08 at our normal venue - get in touch for more details). Each teacher will be provided with an easy reference coaches manual complete with week by week lesson plan and DVD as well as a Leon Paul/CFCC T-shirt to wear at training sessions. Participating teachers will also be able to fence for free at CCFC in order to improve their own fencing skills, however there will be no obligation to regularly attend. CCFC SDS will have an ongoing relationship with each school Mini Fence® club, building up a network between schools for support as well as inter-school competitions. For more information as to why you would want to introduce fencing into your school or for information for teachers and School Sports Coordinators use the menu above to navigate to our other SDS pages.
This project is all about improving access to sport and the quality of life of children. It’s about providing something to children at no cost to their family that they can enjoy and apply themselves to, providing something that state school children don’t normally have access to. But it’s also about developing the skills of educational staff and giving them the chance to create something they’re proud to be a part of and proud to be able to offer to children.
