Become a Writing Star with the Premier League #PLPrimaryStars

Some children are reluctant readers, others reluctant writers and quite a few are both! So how can we ensure that all children are inspired to learn? Well perhaps the answer lies with the Premier League and some of their top footballing stars!

Premier League Primary Stars

With so many young children today idolising footballers and viewing them as their role models, I was absolutely thrilled to hear about the positive work the Premier League is doing through their Primary Stars scheme.

Premier League Primary Stars was set up in March 2017 and is a free scheme available to every primary school in England and Wales. All a school needs to do to get involved, is register on the Premier League Primary Stars website. 

Although the scheme encourages children to be active, it is not all about PE and teamwork. There are also National Curriculum linked teaching resources covering core subjects such as English and maths that will hopefully inspire all children, even the most reluctant, in their learning journeys.

With over 10,000 schools signed up to the programme, there have already been some great success stories. Here is Gethyn's...


This is Gethyn's Story - Premier League Primary Stars and Swansea City from Craig Edmondson on Vimeo.

Premier Values

The activities are all underpinned by the Premier League values, which I was completely unfamiliar with but, as you will see, these values are also incredibly important in everyday life. They encourage children to:

• Be ambitious - work hard and never give up on their goals
• Be inspiring - set a great example to others
• Be connected - work well with others and in a team
• Be fair - treat people equally and think of others

Other benefits of registering with the scheme include free kit, books, local club support and, of course, competitions with some money-can't-buy prizes. 

Writing Stars Poetry Competition - NOW CLOSED

As part of their latest competition, the Premier League are asking children ages five to eleven to inspire their friends and write a poem around the theme of resilience entitled Try, Try Again. 

The poems can be in any creative form and will be judged by an amazing panel of judges including Chelsea and England legend Frank Lampard; Everton FC footballer Yannick Bolasie; Young People's poet Caleb Femi; and one of our absolute favourite author/illustrators, Lauren Child! 

There will be regional, as well as national winners and all the winning poems will be featured in a special illustrated book. The other prizes include an author/poet led workshop, a visit from the Premier League Trophy, football kit and your children's poems being read aloud by a football star. Will it be Frank Lampard or Yannick Bolasie, it could be, who knows?!

Photo Credit: Premier League

Also the first 1000 schools to enter the competition will get a bag packed full of fantastic poetry books. We were sent one of the spectacular packs but unfortunately Yannick didn't deliver it personally! We were still very excited as our bag contained eleven amazing titles including books by Julia Donaldson, Michael Rosen and Allan Ahlberg. I am particularly excited to read I don't like poetry by Joshua Seigal to my Mini Reviewers as we have heard lots of good things about it! Our favourite poetry collections can be purchased from our Amazon Store now (affiliate link).

Get Involved!

So why not ask if your child's school is already involved? If they are not already registered, you can nominate the school here. I have just encouraged my daughter's school to register and I do hope they will enter the Writing Stars competition as it is such a fantastic way to inspire creative learning!

Finally...

The deadline for entries for the Writing Star Poetry Competition is

Friday 22 Decemeber 2017

and all entries must be via a registered school.

You can find out more about the Writing Stars Poetry Competition here. 

This is a sponsored #PLPrimaryStars post in association with the Premier League and Mumsnet. It has been updated to include affiliate links, you can learn more about this here.