Good afternoon and welcome to The Attis Arena, where we welcome supporters, players, directors and personnel of Halifax Town.

We hope that it will be an entertaining game and that Andy and the players continue what has been a positive start to life on home soil in our return to the National League.

In today’s match programme, we are proud to share some of our exciting partnership work with the brilliant ‘Iron Foundation’ and regional education charity ‘Run With It’. Traditionally working across Hull and East Riding, ‘Run With It’ are a charity based in Hull and East Riding. Their work fully aligns to the principles of the community work we do here at the Attis Arena, so to work together has come naturally and is already reaping great rewards.

With sponsorship and funding from ‘Quickline’, the partners have worked together to devise a brand new programme using the power of football to provide exciting new learning programmes for local schools. 

Both the stadium and the theme of football are being used to support and engage pupils to develop and apply their skills in maths, English and IT, as well as improving young people’s motivation and confidence in their learning

Using the exciting green screen TV studio in the Study United classroom, learners are developing skills around research, script-writing and presenting to camera, whether this be player interviews, exploring the history of the football club, or promoting shop merchandise through persuasive and fun sales pitches. At Scunthorpe United, player and club staff involvement is well established and this has enabled learners to conduct player interviews, get involved in practical challenges set by club staff members; with the excitement of carrying out these challenges in a real-life setting. Meeting inspirational staff has also enabled visiting pupils to explore careers in sport and raise aspirations and ambition for future job roles!

During academic year 24/25, 171 pupils have been supported by ‘Run With It’ and ‘Quickline’ to access a mix of enrichment days and intervention programmes at The Attis Arena, where young people have taken part in activities such as:

·      functional maths and English – using and applying maths and English around the stadium

·      hands-on learning of coding and robotics through programming robots to play football

·      exploring the science of football with opportunities to investigate the effects of exercise on the body; alongside nutrition and health.

·      media and Journalism; including player interviews, sports commentary and TV show creation

·      physical literacy and numeracy; making learning memorable and getting children moving!

·      practical nutrition and cookery sessions to promote the importance of a balance diet and healthy eating

Don’t just take our word for it – the feedback from schools is demonstrating the value and impact of the programme for the young people attending, so we leave the last words with one of the pupils who shared the following comment with us; “I have just had the best time of my life!”

If you’d like to know more about the exciting ‘Run With It’ programme in partnership with ‘The Iron Foundation’, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can contact us by telephone 07385427656, or by email j.laws@ironfoundation.co.uk  for more information.

Up The Iron!