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Kingsmead Technology College Pigeon Club

 

 

Jim Emerton chats to Rich Chambers

KINGSMEAD TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE PIGEON CLUB

Please relate the inception of your fascination in pigeons and education, and introduce yourself to us.

My fascination with pigeons started when I was a young child. My family have always had pigeons and birds - my great grandfather had them, my grandad has them and so does my father. My brother Craig and I were always around them and involved in the clubs and in 1999 we were given our very own loft attached to my dad's stock loft. Craig and I raced as R & C Chambers. 

What inspired you to establish the pigeon educational project?

The inspiration for the Pigeon Project here at Kingsmead stemmed from my own interest in pigeons from an early age. Looking back now I can see the massive benefits that I had as a child keeping and racing pigeons such as responsibility and team work and a direct understanding of nature and the natural world. In 2008 I left university and went into working in the inclusion unit at Great Wyrley Performing Arts High School in Walsall. This area of the school helped children that were struggling with school and school life and we were able to offer support to those students. This is where the initial idea stemmed from as I could see that a lot of the children I was working with had social and emotional problems and I found that when I talked about my pigeons they did show a great interest. One of the students even got his parents to buy him a small shed and started to keep birds. We began to see an improvement in his behaviour and we even saw his marks going up as he was able to concentrate better in lessons. We also got him to give talks to the students about his birds, which he was able to do with ease. In 2010 I moved schools to Kingsmead Technology College in Hednesford and after a year I had the opportunity to set up a project involving pigeons on the school grounds for the children. With the experience that I had from Great Wyrley I knew we could set up a project and it could be integrated into everyday school life over time.

Do the pupils gain valuable life experience from contact with the birds?

Yes they do. The skills that the children use when they are involved in the project are widely transferable. The skills that we have already identified and witnessed the students using are:

  • Communication We have a number of children who are participating in the project on a regular basis and I step back “most of the time” and let the children do the individual jobs to keep the birds in their routine. I give the tasks and the children then communicate with each other and designate jobs to do. This brings me into the next area...
  • Team Work The Project could not work without everyone, including myself, working together as a team. This can be as basic as designation of jobs in the loft to sitting around a table and coming up with the feeding and racing strategy for racing, leading into...
  • Organisation and Planning The children regularly meet during the racing season in the school's library to discuss and work out how we will feed the birds, what races the pigeons go to and also what pairings we will have for the season. We also discuss training and other areas. The discussions are chaired and guided by myself but the children are the ones that finally decide.
  • Problem Solving This is one of the most interesting skills that the students demonstrate and some of the ideas are, let’s just say interesting but it really does stimulate their minds to think creatively about any problems that may occur. These range from how do we train the birds when it's bad weather or when we have to keep them in the loft when the birds of prey are rearing their young as they attack the pigeons and keep them fit whilst they are not able to fly around home, to working out what time the pigeons will be arriving home from a race taking into consideration the distance, weather conditions and also the wind speed and direction. 

As you can see, these are just the obvious skills that the children are using every day in the project but we have also seen that the children are able to concentrate more in the activities they participate in. Also they have a better understanding of nature than might have been the case given the amount of time young people are spending on their computer games and in front of the television during their spare time.   

Can you get some individuals to comment for this interview please?

Please see - http://kingsmeadpigeons.wix.com/kingsmead-pigeons#!videos/c9qb

How is the actual racing organised for the pupils?

During the months of April to September the school's pigeons race each Saturday in regular races. These range from racing in the local club in Rugeley to competing on a national level where we are members of the Midlands National Flying Club, National Flying Club and also the British Barcelona Club. In these races the pigeons represent the whole school against everyone else who keeps pigeons in the area of the club or nationals. These range from professional pigeon flyers to the amateur, and the school do OK you know, winning a few prize cards both at club level and also national level! Alongside this we also run inter-house competitions which are run on a one loft race structure. Each house has a team of 3 pigeons designated to them and they race each week against each other to collect points to add to their score. There is a running league table which is published every week in the notices that are read by all students and they can keep track of how their birds are doing. The winner of the league at the end of the season receives the house cup and that house's colours are presented in the pigeon loft for the next 12 months. We also have the same system for our primary schools that are attached but we have a one off race at the start of the season called the “Squeakers' Cup”. Each primary school is designated 1 bird and they have a photo of this bird and its details in their primary school reception for all to see. Then we have a race where each primary school races against each other. All of the primary schools are invited to the event and we are hoping this year to have over 200 students waiting at home for their birds to arrive. We are sponsored by a number of companies for this race and the prizes are a trophy for the winner sponsored by the Midlands National Flying Club and also book vouchers to the value of the cash prize put up by the other sponsors of the race. We also run a charity race. This is again run on a one loft race structure with the birds representing one of the house's charities that we have at school (there are 7 in all including the whole school charity). Again each charity is allocated a pigeon and they race for a percentage of the prize pot. Again sponsors donate a cash sum to the race and that total amount is paid out to the charities. This race is held on the day of the school's annual summer fete and it is hoped this year it will be witnessed by over 500 people.

Will the project be replicated in the wider national curriculum?

We have been working very closely with the Midlands National Flying Club to get this project into as many schools as we can. There has been a project set up by the club called “Flying back to Nature” where a DVD has been produced with learning resources on and also lessons for schools to use. All these lessons have been directed towards pigeons and the skills used in the sport. So we can just mention a few: Mathematics working out velocities and also the weight and percentage of food we feed the birds. English writing articles about the project and writing to other fanciers to find out what views they have on different areas of pigeon racing. Science  looking at the biology of the birds, also looking at how the pigeons convert their food into energy and what each seed does for the pigeon by breaking it down into its nutritional value. Geography looking at the way that pigeons navigate using the earth’s contours, surroundings and magnetism. The list is endless and we have been able to cover every subject area with lessons that are directly related to the curriculum but involve pigeons. We have also got lessons for schools that do not have a pigeon loft at their school so everyone can participate in our sport. So yes the educational value in relation to the National Curriculum is really relevant in the project that we are undertaking.

The concept is perfect for TV and the mainstream media. How can this be realised?

The answer to this is we agree and we have already shown that this project is a great way of promoting the sport to a large number of people. The project has been on local and national news both on the TV and the radio and we have been able to reach a wide audience with this. It shows how popular the project is when you type in Google “KINGSMEAD PIGEONS” and all you see is the pigeon project for pages and pages. It has gone as far as the Middle East and we have had feedback from all over the world. This was on the back of only 4 showings of the news articles on the TV, radio and newspapers. The DVD “The Queen's Wings” by film maker Jim Jenner also features the project and it has proven to be a great tool in showing not only what we are doing at school but also what a great sport pigeon racing is and what can be achieved by the people who participate.

Are the parents stimulated by the good work at the college?

The parents of the children involved think that the project is a great idea and have commented on how they have seen the attitude of their children change and also they are now going back home and talking about the birds and teaching their parents the skills they have picked up. Parents are always coming up to me asking about the birds and how they are getting on and at this year's summer fete we will be running an open day alongside the Charity Race where parents and anyone from the community can come along and learn about the birds that we have and what we are doing.

Will a special college strain of birds be generated in time?

The short answer to this in the short term is no as we can only house a maximum of 28 Old Birds and 40 YBs and at the moment we are trying to get this project known throughout the sport so we are asking as many people as possible to donate their birds to the loft so that they have an interest with what we are doing. At this time with the amount of different strains it is difficult to keep the gene pool pure to create a Kingsmead Family. The long term answer is yes we will and this will be the basis of one of the units for A Level Biology as we will be looking into the genetics of the birds and looking to create a family of pigeons. We are just now starting to come up with the scheme of work for this project and we hope to start developing the family within the next 3 to 4 years.

Are books and films on pigeons available, with funding for the students?

At the moment we are very short on funds due to the project being self supported. We have had a lot of sponsorship from companies within the sport and without their help this project just would not have happened. The initial funding of £1000 from the RPRA and £300 from PIGEONCHAT.COM was used to buy and construct the loft but from then we have been on our own to speak. We have been donated a large amount of reading material by fanciers which is housed in the school library for anyone to look at but with regard to funding for the students, at this stage we are not able to support them. This is why the project that the Midlands National Flying Club is doing is so important because if we can get the awareness that what we are doing is fundamental to the learning of the children and raise awareness of the project and other projects similar to ours around the UK, we are more likely to be able to financially support our students as well as what we are doing at the moment.

Are the pupils examined on pigeon related topics?

At the moment we do not have a qualification running in school for the children that is directly related to the Pigeon Project. However we have found a number of qualifications where we can use the pigeons as part of their qualification such as ASDAN and COPE and we have also looked at the Prince's Trust where we have found that the project can be used for 90% of the qualification. This is an area that we are currently looking into as a school but we will be getting something in the next few years for the students who participate in the project. Saying this though, we use the project in all subject areas which evidently is preparing them for their GCSE qualifications so you could on the other hand say yes, there are qualifications related to the project.

 

Any further comments to make in this global interview?

I would just like to thank everyone who has supported the project over the last 18 months. It has been challenging but the results have been excellent and we are only just starting. If anyone has any questions please just email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and please visit our website www.kingsmeadpigeons.wix.com/kingsmead-pigeons

April 2013

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