Back in March 2017 the Premier League introduced a new initiative called Premier League Primary Stars which has already engaged more than 10,000 primary schools in England and Wales, including ours.
The campaign is not about playing football, but uses the appeal of football to engage and inspire children across PE and Sport, English, Maths and PSHE. Premier League Primary Stars is a curriculum-linked education initiative for KS1 and KS2 teachers.
Teaching kids about health, teamwork, resilience and positive behaviour is becoming increasingly important in primary schools as these are much-needed skills that will transfer to secondary school and ultimately into adulthood.
The programme uses Premier League clubs to inspire children to learn, be active and develop important life skills via:
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- Premier League clubs going into schools in their communities to support teachers in the delivery of lessons
- Bespoke teaching resources that are free to download for teachers and cover maths, English, PE and PSHE. For more information, go to www.plprimarystars.com
On 28th September (National Poetry Day), the Premier League launched a competition called Writing Stars, which has already captured the imagination of footballers, TV presenters, teachers and children.
The Premier League Primary Stars TV advert features an array of football stars and the “Try, Try Again” poem by William Hickson. Beginning with the words “It’s a lesson you should heed, try, try again. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”, this poem is what inspired the Premier League Writing Stars competition.
The competition is backed by an all-star judging panel including Chelsea and England legend Frank Lampard, Everton FC footballer Yannick Bolasie, Charlie & Lola author-illustrator Lauren Child and young people’s poet Caleb Femi.
How to enter the competition
To enter the #PLWritingStars competition, teachers should encourage pupils to write poems based on the theme of resilience entitled “Try, Try Again”. There are two categories – one for pupils in KS1 and one for those in KS2. Key Stage 1 can submit individual or group entries with individual entries only for Key Stage 2.
Poems should be no more than 20 lines or 150 words and must be on the theme of resilience. Poems can be of any structure and don’t have to rhyme. Pupils can write a new poem themselves or continue the Try, Try Again poem.
Entries will be considered against a range of criteria including creativity, tone and originality. All entries need to be submitted via their school. Teachers and parents should visit plprimarystars.com to register or nominate their schools to take part. The competition is open from Thursday 28th September 2017 (National Poetry Day) to Friday 22nd December 2017.
Premier League Primary Stars will contact schools in February 2018. The winning poems will be published in a limited-edition book. Other prizes include money can’t buy prizes like author-led writing workshops and Premier League trophy school visits, as well as winning poems being read aloud by football stars. The first 1,000 schools that enter the competition will receive a bespoke ‘Book Bag’.
Disclaimer:This post is in partnership with Mumsnet. I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid for the product or to attend an event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity and all opinions here are my own.
I’ve heard a lot about Premier League Primary Stars and I think it is a fantastic initiative. This competition sounds great!
What a brilliant idea, sports stars really do inspire children don’t they.
I think it’s a great initiative. A good way of getting children interested in writing.
Brilliant initiative our school won a competition for some reading books which I entered them for ! they were so grateful they won
This is such a fab initiative and so lovely to read about.
Primary Stars is such a great scheme. They do it at my son’s school and he’s had lessons with Manchester City players. I loved the advert, the poem is so moving.
Wow this sounds like a great initiative! I wish they had it at my school when I was younger. PE was always very boring and tedious. I would have especially liked to take part in the poetry competition.
Oh wow, this is actually really cool. It’s a great way to get the kids more excited about school!
As a football family we really love this. Though my daughter is convinced it means our football team will play a match at her school..
I love this initiative, it really is inspiring young children across the nation!
It sounds like a great initiative and a great way to inspire children to write and read.
What a lovely thing for them to do. It’s great that children can be inspired to write by their heroes. My boy has recently started school and this is the first I’ve heard of this initiative.
What a great campaign! I love that football stars have got involved, it’s a great incentive!
I’ve never heard of this campaign but it sounds amazing! T has just given up her gymnastics for football, I bet she’ll be inspired by this 🙂
I think it’s so fantastic when people in the public eye use that as a platform to help or inspire others. This campaign sounds brilliant for children 🙂
Its great when celebrities come together and encourage youngsters inspire youngsters in school. Excellent campaign.
I actually met Frank Lampard when I was younger and he is lovely so I am glad that he is supporting such a brilliant campaign!
Such a good campaign, I love it. Encouraging children and inspiring them, partiucalry with faces they know so well is a fab idea.
I love it when celebrities do things like this to encourage and promote campaigns 🙂
What a great idea – anything that encourages kids in school is a good thing!
What a great campaign . The competition sounds brilliant . I’ve always had a thing for Frank lol x
This sounds a great campaign, I must ask Gee if she is doing anything for it x
This sounds like a great campaign, perfect way of getting kids involved
Such a wonderful campaign, lovely to see the partnership helping schools
What a great idea, awesome to see well-known footballers promoting the initiative!