The National Citizen Service (NCS) program the Community Trust deliver is for all pupils aged between 15-17-years old and it is for them to challenge themselves outside of their comfort zone, and also help to gain valuable skills for work in the future.
The NCS staff take groups of Foundation Learning students out of Myerscough College for a week to give them an action packed experience. Most recently the staff took a group and the club’s Under 18s to Scotland for a week.
This focused on team building exercises, with one of the activities being a ‘Come Dine with Me’ challenge, where they had to pitch their ideas to us, and then go and deliver that on a dish for us. Some players and pupils surprised the Community Trust staff on the day, others might need to go and practice their cooking skills!
The NCS program has three phases to it all and for us this really helps the staff focus on what they are going to deliver and will give us that end goal for those who participate. Phase one focuses on outdoor activities, and this allows those to challenge themselves with a range of adrenaline fueled activities such as kayaking, abseiling and archery.
Phase two sees the students reunited with their group in a university hall style environment and with this, it focuses on the children developing the life skills they took on board from the previous stage, and also help them become more confident within themselves to explore different avenues. Then Phase three puts all the above into practice and this is where the student will be given the chance to give something back to the community.
James Hill, who made his senior debut against Leicester City last week spoke about his NCS experience and would recommend it to anybody who hasn’t been on the programme before.
He added: “I had a great time on NCS trip to Scotland, especially on the residential course we went on.
“As a group we pushed ourselves and really grew as a team, which I am sure will help us as the season goes along for the Under 18s.
“The staff on the course were a good laugh, especially Callum Spence and Michael Wilkinson, and they made that week fun, exciting and memorable and for the staff and players, I’d like to say a big thank you.”
The group most recently raised over £800 for the Alder Hay Charity – a charity which helps fund life-saving research – and this is a charity close to many of the students, so for them to raise that money was huge. It was an emotional fundraising campaign, with the students going away happy with what they had done.
Brad Padgett, a Myerscough Foundation Learning student spoke about the social action project and said: “We raised money for Alder Hay children’s hospital, to help the children who are unwell, and to help the charity with their research.
“As a group, we’ve done really well so far and I hope we can continue to help all those involved. It has been amazing to help and contribute to a worthy cause."