We recently attended the official 2012 launch of Premier League Reading Stars at Arsenal’s home ground the Emirates Stadium. What is this I hear you ask? In simple terms, Premier League Reading Stars is collaboration between the Premier League, the National Literacy Trust and the Arts Council. The project targets children who may be disillusioned by their ability and interest in literacy, but who do have a passion for football. The organisation was set up to assist learning and development in this field, using the power of football to make reading interesting, fun and more comprehendible to these children. Players from all 20 Premier League clubs set literacy challenges and talk about their favourite books, sharing their love of reading.
What has it got to do with us? We work very closely with the Premier League and the National Literacy Trust in communicating their community focused initiatives. We developed and produced all of the campaign material including the launch and project delivery. Using our online Print Distribution service we created a resource pack which schools can order direct, giving them all of the tools they need to deliver an effective and engaging Premier League Reading Stars programme.
Now that you know what we’re talking about, let’s get onto the actual day, and what a day it was…
Eighty school children from local Islington primary schools joined Arsenal star Theo Walcott, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall, Minister of State for Schools, Mick Gibb MP and Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore for the launch at the Emirates Stadium. The children were split into teams and took part in a quiz hosted by children’s author Tom Palmer, with some help from Theo and The Duchess who announced the winners and presented them with their trophies and prizes. But it wasn’t all work for the school children, they had the opportunity to get their own back and quiz Theo on his favourite reads too. The winning team also had the chance to show off their ball skills as they took penalties with a little assistance from Theo and the Royal guest spectating.
Theo said on the day, “I want to get children to read books because these days a lot of kids don’t read. It’s easy when you relate everything to football, because kids all across the country love football. If I can just get one kid to read more that will make me happy."
A fantastic day and a superb initiative, it feels great to be a part of it.