A guest blog from Ryan Bromyard, PLS Education Coach at Leicester City Football Club. He reflects on the success of Premier League Reading Stars during LCFC's winning season of 2015/16.
Premier League Reading Stars (PLRS) has become the flagship education initiative within Leicester City FC Community Trust, embedded within the current Premier League School Sport offer to enhance the Community Trust’s work with primary and secondary schools across the city and county.
Harnessing the brand of Leicester City FC and young people’s passion for sport, Premier League Reading Stars helps to change attitudes towards learning and ultimately raise literacy attainment among underachieving pupils. Success has been measured by the engagement of 270 pupils across 11 primary and secondary schools, who have all taken part in the 10 week programme.
Sessions focus on motivating young people to enjoy reading, while emphasising the importance of teamwork and motivation. LCFC Community Trust have capitalised on the club’s success by embedding the ethos’ of teamwork, dedication and passion to inspire young people to be successful and strive to reach their full potential.
LCFC Community Trust hosted a PLRS club author day at the King Power Stadium in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, with local author Bali Rai inspiring 10 partnership schools. Activities consisted of fun literacy workshops and pupils also had the opportunity to enjoy a ground tour.
The Community Trust have also developed a partnership with local funding provider Whatever it Takes who support young people in Leicester to read by the time they leave school. Schools have been supported with funding bids, enabling them to utilise local funding to support with the delivery of Premier League Reading Stars.
“They loved working with LCFC coaches and have gained lots of confidence in their reading skills by having football as a driver,” said Paul Cod, teacher at Newbold Verdon Primary School.
“A key component of success for the programme was having Leicester City Community staff deliver the programme,” said Dan Gray, teacher at Alderman Richard Hallam Primary School. “The children bonded with the coaches and created a relationship that was outside of the normal strict teacher/pupil relationship, which effectively infused them with a passion for reading and writing on subjects they cared about.”
LCFC Community Trust have strived to encourage parents to support their children while taking part in the programme. “My child now has a love of books,” said one parent of a pupils taking part at Newbold Verdon Primary School. “He has read a book from start to finish in one night! He’s since gone on to read other and more books.”
The Community Trust is looking forward to continuing to build on its existing relationship with the National Literacy Trust and expanding the reach of the Premier League Reading Stars programme, embedding it within the new Premier League Primary Stars.
Leicester City FC’s winning experience of Premier League Reading Stars
