Cambridge United's after-school club funding pulled

The purpose-built learning centre is located under the U's south stand

"A lot of the schools are very sad that we won't be able to continue offering these programmes," said Helen Dyson, from Playing for Success in Cambridge.

She was reacting to news that its funding has been cancelled by the government.

Playing for Success is a network of 162 learning centres based in sports venues around the country.

There is only one of these centres in Cambridgeshire and its home is Cambridge United's stadium.

The government announced its intention to end funding for Playing for Success in January 2011.

'Disengaged'

"We have lots of children come who are classified as underachieving in numeracy, literacy and ITC," explained Helen Dyson, who is the Playing for Success centre manager at Cambridge United.

"We also have lots of children whose teachers feel they lack self-confidence or are disengaged with learning."

The aim of the centres is to help children see the point of learning.

They were set up over 10 years ago as a joint project between the Department of Education, local authorities and sports organisations.

Partners include The Premier League, The Football League Trust, Premiership Rugby and the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The British scheme has inspired similar ones in other countries, including The Netherlands, Japan, Belgium and Australia.

Playing for Success says it has been praised in four national evaluations for contributing to significant improvements in pupils' literacy and numeracy skills, as well as increasing their self-confidence.

The purpose-built Cambridge United learner centre is underneath the U's south stand.

"They are really lovely facilities," said Ms Dyson. "With 14 Mac computers, with windows and Mac software."

And she is hopeful that the facilities may continue to be used.

"Without Department of Education funding it is very, very difficult for the county council to know how they could maintain a centre such as ourselves," she said.

"But it may be possible that we might run some other scheme or a different kind of project in the learning centre after March."