West Devon Club & Community Coach, Jack Ormsby, has been running a community Dynamos Cricket programme at Riverside Community Primary School, Plymouth.

Working with Active Devon and Plymouth City Council, the school has accessed Opening Schools Facilities funding to provide physical activity for its local community.

Having delivered a successful Chance to Shine curriculum programme at the school in September, headteacher Clare Willcocks was keen to have Jack back to run a community cricket offer through the winter.

A Dynamos Cricket programme was set up with fully funded places for the children, which included a personalised t-shirt.

"The reason that a lot of them have signed up is because they had Jack in previously and those sessions were really good. A buzz went around the hall when he came and did his assembly," said Clare.

"The t-shirt for a child that age, it's really exciting and a great hook isn't it? Our pupils will rarely be offered a chance to personalise a free t-shirt and receive other free cricket equipment - even now on mufti days, many of them choose to wear their cricket t-shirt."

The school sits in one of the most deprived areas of the country (IMD) and an area where cricket is not widely played.

"In all honesty, as a school, we are very unlikely to have offered cricket as an outside club, so this was a wonderful opportunity for our pupils.

"Cricket is widely seen as the preserve of more affluent schools and areas, isn't it? But we have pupils with potential and natural flair for cricket so now I  hope that some will take it up outside of school.

"Pupil participation has been brilliant. Jack manages the children really well - his sessions are fun and engaging and it has been nice to see their skills develop and how much they enjoy an hour of physical activity in a safe space. They have also made friends with other children who they would not have ordinarily mixed with.  

"For some of them, it's been really social and they've made links with people that they just wouldn't have got together with."

Parents of participants spoke of how their children have embraced the programme.

"She has really enjoyed it and interestingly she's had no exposure to cricket. Now she's really latched onto cricket because of the programme and is super excited to come and has really enjoyed it."

The children were full of praise for Jack and the added benefits of the Dynamos programme:

"He's always really nice….he'll always come over and teach us how to do it properly and try and make us better at it.

"The t-shirts - I'm loving it and I love the bracelet as well."

If your school would like to set up a Dynamos or All Stars Programme, please contact our Clubs & Programmes Manager, Alex Jopling.