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Special school pupils pass angling exam

Staff and pupils at a Cambridgeshire secondary school offering angling lessons as a formal qualification have celebrated a second successful year.

The Centre School, part of Cottenham Village College, operates an alternative learning programme for students aged 12-16 with special educational needs arising from a variety of social, economic and learning factors.  One of many options available there is the ‘Introduction to Angling and the Environment’ - an OCN (Open College Network) accredited course.

This year’s successful intake – Ashley Coupland from Littleport plus Wisbech trio Chaz Thrower, Liam Thrower and Luke Jones (pictured) – received pass certificates plus trophies and prizes from top specialist angler Matt Rand at their annual presentation day on Waterbeach AC’s Magpie Lake.

Matt Rand said: “It’s always great to see youngsters who are really into fishing. And they clearly know their stuff. I discovered that Liam caught a silver bream bigger than my personal best during the teaching sessions!”

Kye Jerrom, our local Fisheries Technical Officer, said: ‘As lead coaches, my colleague James Hooker and I commit ourselves to one day a month on the programme.  As well as providing tackle and support we act as assessors for the overall marking of the practical sessions.  It is extremely rewarding to see how the students have developed their skills over the duration of the course and the positive impact angling has on them is massive. The benefits angling can bring to education are immense and projects like this help us to deliver our ‘Angling 2015’ Angling Participation Programme.’

We are also funding 10 candidates to take part in one of the country’s first Angling Development Board angling coaching courses.  Two of the candidates, Martin Croxon (lead youth instructor) and Tom Legge (assistant instructor) are from The Centre School in Cottenham.  Once they complete later in June, The Centre School will be completely self sufficient which will allow us to move on to help other schools and colleges in promoting and delivering angling qualifications.