Premier League Primary Stars exceeding expectations one year after launch
Friday 20 April 2018 08:17, UK
The Premier League Primary Stars community programme to educate school children has exceeded expectations since it was launched in 2017.
The programme was launched in March 2017 with the aim of supporting 10,000 primary schools in England and Wales by 2019, with the ambition to have it available into every primary school in both countries by 2022.
The scheme offers a range of bespoke curriculum-linked teaching resources aimed at Key Stages One and Two, including lesson plans, activity ideas, worksheets and video content.
One year since it's launch, the Premier League's executive chairman Richard Scudamore, says he is delighted the initiative is exceeding expectations.
Speaking at an event where two winners of the Premier League's 'Writing Stars' poetry competition were announced, he told Sky Sports News: "I said last year after the event that it was the best thing we had done.
"The atmosphere was so electric but everyone knows we were not going to be happy until we saw some real results.
"We can trot out all the numbers, but it's not about just that. It's about that huge positive impact on individuals, the young people themselves and the teachers, whose life it makes a little bit easier.
"People know there are 20 clubs in the Premier League but they probably don't realise is that we go along funding and cascading this stuff all the way down the pyramid. So that's every Football League club down to the National League.
"When you think of where those clubs are and map them out across the country, we are pretty much reaching everywhere. That's important, it's not London-centric kind of thing, it's something that impacts, literally, all over the country."
Former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard and Everton winger Yannick Bolasie were among a panel of judges who selected two winners from 25,000 entries in the poetry competition.
Scudamore continued: "Again, when you think about 15,000, schools, 25,000 people have been involved, it starts from a small acorn and then gets massive. The 50,000 books we are about to give away, the whole thing is absolutely inspirational. It's a massive boost for everyone who works for the Premier League, the kick it gives everyone within the place.
"The most important thing is 'aspiration raising'. I firmly believe that the kids today in tough places to be, having their aspirations raised, just lifting that is the most important bit."
