Chris McShane, Headteacher, Winton School, Andover

Winton School has been working in partnership with Martial Art World (MAW) for them to deliver part of our foundation learning programme. This programme is primarily focused on getting young people employment ready and therefore concentrates on personal development areas such as building confidence, effective communication, self discipline, problem solving and teamwork. The work they have undertaken on our behalf has been delivered to the highest professional standards and I am extremely confident in recommending them to others.

We started working with MAW because their philosophy and thinking reflected our own. They shared an understanding that learning is about so much more. For example the self confidence, attributes and skills for learning have to be developed in order for long term sustained learning to impact on the young individuals on the programme.

Their programme Leadership Challenge via the medium of Martial Arts is divided into 3 modules:

• Confidence and Communication
• Strategy and Creativity
• Trust and Teamwork

All of these are tackled through the medium of Martial Arts - but the focus is very much on students taking responsibility for their own outcomes.

The card system MAW have developed presents the opportunity for on-going self / peer / staff assessment and each module is mapped to the martial arts grading system.

The programme is accessible to a wide range of students because of the individual nature of it and MAW can also tailor it to meet the needs of groups of students from foundation learning to gifted and talented.

Winton students have made excellent progress on the programme they report and, through our link teacher, we can evidence noticeable improvements in determination, self-control, confidence, assertiveness, working together as well as the students own personal fitness. We have also witnessed an impact on the wider curriculum as students become more focused on what they have to achieve.

At Winton we believe that quality learning can happen in many different ways and seek to establish a highly motivated and professional network of learning providers, we are very confident to cite MAW as a partner in our network and we hope to expand our involvement with them in the future.

I am happy to provide further information to any organisation considering using MAW as a learning partner.

Chris McShane,
Headteacher, Winton School, Andover