Fleetwood Town Community Trust were delighted to welcome the PDC (Professional Darts Cooperation) and the Room 180 team for two days of their Bullseye Maths Programme in cohesion with the PDC World Matchplay tournament in Blackpool this week.
Bullseye Maths has been launched to help Key Stage 2 students and anyone interested in maths with numeracy in a fun and inclusive way. Children had the opportunity to take to the board using a soft tip, child friendly dart and attempt many different challenges, incorporating a cross curricular link from hand/eye co-ordination to numeracy.
On Tuesday, the Trust had the pleasure of hosting the event at Shakespeare Primary School for the whole day, with a session before and after lunchtime. The Trust were delighted to be invited by the PDC Head of Media Dave Allen and his team along with Gary Horsley and team from Room 180 Academy. A very special guest entered the room to a host of cheers from the Year 5 students.
The special guest was Ryan Searle - fresh from his 10-4 victory over Raymond Van Barneveld the night before, averaging an impressive 105.19 in the process – the highest average of the first round.
The children were explained the anatomy of a dart and the correct throwing techniques, before chancing their arm at hitting the board, with the Room 180 team providing different games and activities along the way, including a paper challenge where the paper gradually got smaller the more accurate the child was throwing and an odds and evens game – with points going to children or the coaches depending on which one was hit with the dart.
In the afternoon session, the other Year 5 group were then introduced to another darting superstar – this time in the way of Brendan Dolan – who produced the biggest shock of the first round beating multiple World Champion Michael van Gerwen 10-7.
The class followed a similar itinerary in the afternoon session, but were given the opportunity to watch Brendan’s infamous 9 darter he achieved in 2011 where he since was given his nickname ‘History Maker’ for his achievements.
We thank Shakespeare School for their hospitality and hope the children enjoyed their day!
On Wednesday morning, Mike from Fleetwood Town Community Trust and the Room 180 team hosted the Bullseye Maths event, this time from the amazing Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens. This time – it was Flakefleet Primary’s opportunity to experience this initiative.
15 children from Flakefleet made their way via a tram and were welcomed by the Trust, Room 180, PDC and their legendary referee – Russ Bray. Russ is well known for his distinctive voice and his famous 180 shouts!
The group had an ‘all access' guided tour around the Winter Gardens, showing the players practise rooms, Sky Sports Studios and commentators boxes. After this, the group had a very special walk on – with Russ announcing the schools name with the favoured walk on song of one of the pupils.
The children then took to the infamous Winter Gardens staged and experienced another fantastic Bullseye Maths lesson hosted by Gary and his team – along with Russ who displayed terrific insight and knowledge to the children with both technical and numeric development.
The Trust would like to thank the PDC, the Room 180 team and both Shakespeare and Flakefleet. We hope both schools enjoyed the experience, and are looking out for any opportunities to progress further in the sport or in mathematics in the future.
