Every weekend, families up and down the country travel to watch their favourite football team. It’s a ritual that unites generations, providing a lifetime of memorable matches, amazing goals as well as fantastic displays of great teamwork and sportsmanship. But have you thought about how the power of football can be woven into not only PE lessons, but can also inspire pupils to engage with Maths, PSHE and English classes too?

Today marks the start of Schools’ Football Week. Premier League Primary Stars – a totally free programme created by the Premier League to use the power of football to inspire pupils to learn, be active and develop important life skills – features a wealth of resources that can be used across the curriculum. Already used by more than three-quarters of schools across England & Wales, the interactive lesson plans include worksheets, videos and goodies for your classroom such as wall charts and posters, which all serve to bring key curriculum subjects to life in a way that captures pupils’ attention.

All of the free resources are centred around the four key Premier League Values: be ambitious, be inspiring, be connected and be fair.

The Premier League Primary Stars website is not just for schools. Parents and carers who are homeschooling their children can also download an array of resources by visiting the home learning section, filled with resource packs specifically curated for a home environment. It’s also a great way for families to sustain the attention of children who are self-isolating at home, away from their friends and you, their favourite teacher.

So, have you thought about using football as a tool to inspire? Let’s delve deeper into the Premier League Primary Stars website.

#MathsIsFun

Have you thought about embedding your Maths lesson with a bit of football magic? Pupils can access the Premier League Primary Stars Season Stats Dashboard, a first-of-its-kind Maths resource which uses real-life Premier League data to help get the classroom bursting with energy. It features Premier League players and is updated every week with the latest statistics from the weekend’s fixtures covering everything from goals scored to tackles made on the pitch. It enables pupils to increase their understanding of statistics, practise the use of mathematical symbols as well as mental and written calculations.

Activities can be played against an online timer where individuals or teams compete to win and score goals. And if that’s not enough, maths legend and friend of the programme, Bobby Seagull, shares his tips and tricks of how football plus maths equals a whole lot of fun.

Back to you in the studio…

For those budding reporters in your English class. With the Premier League Primary Stars programme, pupils are able to master their literacy and writing skills while finding out just what it takes to make a great journalist. The Roving Reporter resources feature insight from experts at Sky Sports News as well as the Daily and Sunday Telegraph. Pupils can use the accompanying activity sheet to plan and draft a report that brings every twist and turn of a match to life.

If you’re looking for something to keep pupils’ literacy skills sharp, there are plenty of activities to keep them busy. Why not see how many football related words they can spell with a bespoke, fun and football-based spelling challenge that has accompanying videos of players and pupils taking part.

Train like your heroes

PE has come a long way since the days of endless attempts on the climbing walls and cross-country runs in the pouring rain. The Premier League Primary Stars programme is packed full of activities and teaching methods that will have pupils looking forward to their PE lessons.

Using a series of PE training films designed by teachers for teachers, you can create a lesson that meets the needs of individual pupils. The PE Planning Toolkit sits perfectly alongside the video. The values-based way of learning allows you to learn more about how to create an inclusive environment that works for everyone, and how to incorporate the three learning domains, differentiation, modelling and demonstrations, questioning and discussion, and assessment for learning into your PE lessons.

Thousands of girls and boys dream of training like their footballing heroes and Premier League Primary Stars enables dreams to come true with its Train like a Footballer resource, enabling pupils to practise different movements and improve their technique, just like the pros.

Play the Right Way gets pupils to think about how they can demonstrate positive behaviour traits when playing football.

Diversity makes our society stronger

Giving pupils insight on the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion is vital. Tackling issues surrounding anti-discrimination in the classroom has also become a priority for teachers who look to create a positive and inclusive environment for pupils to learn. The Premier League is committed to creating an inclusive atmosphere for all – from fans and players, to young people and those in the community.

Why not facilitate classroom discussion with a set of films featuring young people talking to Crystal Palace FC and Liverpool FC football players about the impact and consequences of racism. They are great for demonstrating to pupils how to be an ally and support their friends. The most recent No Room For Racism – Youth Voices is where you will find this empowering resource.

At the end of last year, Premier League Primary Stars launched a new resource titled ‘Rainbow Laces – This is everyone’s game’. It features an educational film, and supporting resources, that celebrates LGBTQ+ football fans and showcases the power of football to bring people together.

Author Terry Pratchett once said: “The thing about football – the important thing about football – is that it is not just about football.” This Schools’ Football Week, head over to the Premier League Primary Stars website where you can find an abundance of brilliant resources using the power of football that will ignite your pupils imagination.

Professional football club staff work with teachers to deliver fun, educational sessions across a range of subjects within local partner schools. For more information about Premier League Primary Stars, and to sign up for free, please visit www.plprimarystars.com

Created in partnership with immersive learning platform, Lyfta, and national children’s charity, the Youth Sport Trust, the event will share ready-made lesson plans and approaches to help teachers engage students with key values through sport, such as resilience, inclusivity and teamwork.

During the webinar, teachers will discover top tips for re-engaging all children with PE this new academic year. With 73 per cent of children returning to school with low levels of physical fitness, and the pandemic having a devastating impact on mental wellbeing, a key aspect of the teacher training will explore the connections between physical activity, healthy lifestyles and emotional wellbeing.

Linked to the national curriculum and UN Sustainable Development Goals, the free session will uncover how stories of young people from across the world can be used by educators to explore a diverse range of topics from PE to relationships and sex education (RSE). Through interactive video and documentary content, teachers will gain insight into:

• How PE can be connected to RSE lessons to help children understand how physical and emotional health complement and impact one another
• How real experiences of young people playing football around the world, from Brazil to China, can be used to demonstrate how sport helps young people cope with success and failure
• How story-based lessons relating to gender stereotypes in sport, from female weightlifters to male ballet dancers, can spark discussion around inclusivity and empathy

The resources have been developed to convey the benefits of sports for all children, helping to tackle the barriers preventing girls, students from disadvantaged backgrounds and children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) from engaging with PE.

This follows new research from the Youth Sport Trust which finds just 39 per cent of girls say they enjoy PE lessons compared to 49 per cent of boys, citing reasons such as not being “good at exercise” or not being “competitive” enough.

The ready-made lesson plans further help to ease the strain on teachers’ already overstretched workloads.

Neil Dawson, Head of PE at Wilson Stuart School, said: “Through sparking conversation and being able to navigate the story worlds, our pupils have demonstrated increased appetite to try new activities and sports in their Physical Development time and PE lessons along with wider wellbeing outcomes such as the importance of hydration, sleep and cleanliness as part of their preparing for Adulthood Curriculum.”

Serdar Ferit, co-founder at Lyfta, said: “We are thrilled to be continuing our long-standing partnership with the Youth Sport Trust and launching this free online training event for PE teachers and sports curriculum leads. PE is an incredibly valuable part of the curriculum for many reasons beyond just keeping fit and active. Through sports, children can learn about important life skills such as confidence, leadership, mental wellbeing and gender equality. We create immersive stories so that all students have the opportunity to access, explore and engage with sports, regardless of special educational needs or disabilities. This webinar will help teachers to leverage PE as a powerful educational tool when linked with wider RSE curriculum subjects.”

Vicci Wells, National Manager – Targeted Interventions at the Youth Sport Trust said: “We are really excited to be partnering with Lyfta to offer free training to PE teachers and sports curriculum leads and exploring the role that interactive technology can play in teaching young people key life lessons through sport.

“Our new research shows that a growing proportion of young people agree that they would like to use more technology as part of PE lessons, with 45 per cent agreeing compared with 37 per cent in 2014, and so we are looking forward to supporting more schools to embrace Lyfta’s immersive learning platform.”

For more information and to sign-up for the free Lyfta and Youth Sport Trust event, please visit: www.lyfta.com/youth-sport-trust

Co-created with teenage girls and PE teachers, Studio You has been designed to give teachers a fresh style of resource to inspire this hard-to-engage audience before they disengage with PE and physical activity completely. The platform will be freely available to all schools in England

Powered by Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign (that has inspired nearly 4 million to become active since 2015) Studio You aims to remove the pressure of competition and performance from PE. Instead, it seeks to open girls’ eyes to fun new disciplines and activities such as Combat, Barre, Fitness and Yoga. In line with the This Girl Can ethos, the focus is on enjoyment, community and achieving a sense of personal fulfilment.

The site, which has been developed with £1.5 million of National Lottery Funding, will feature over 100 videos, with teachers able to search for lesson content by duration of class or discipline. All video content is curriculum-linked and teachers can personalise the lesson planning experience by saving their favourite classes into their own digital library.

Kate Dale, the Campaign Lead for This Girl Can at Sport England comments:

“Engaging teenage girls with sport and activity is notoriously challenging.  But we cannot allow millions of girls to disengage at such a young age when the physical, mental and social rewards of an active lifestyle are so important. And for some girls, PE at school is the only chance they have to get active – so it’s important to get the experience right for them,

“We want Studio You to help teachers increase the confidence of the girls who might otherwise disconnect by enabling them to inject fun, choice and ownership into the PE experience. Studio You’s message is clear: getting active should be an enjoyable part of everyday life for all teenage girls and young women – not just those who excel at sport.”

Sport England’s insights show that teenage is the peak time for girls to drop out of school sport and develop deep-rooted negative attitudes to physical activity, that can act as a barrier for life. Research from Sport England’s Secondary Teacher Training programme, shows that only 50% of teenage girls feel confident in PE, compared with 72% of boys^[iii]. In Sport England focus groups, girls who had disengaged from the school PE experience, used words like ‘competitive’, ‘stressy’ and ‘repetitive’ to describe their lessons^[iv], with studies showing that 80% of girls feel they don’t ‘belong’ in sport^[v].

As a result of the insights gained from teenage girls, Studio You focuses on non-traditional, non-competitive activities led by relatable young coaches.  Content can even be selected by mood with four themes: Energise, Relax, Party and Focus to choose from.

 Stewart Orton, Director of Sport from Fortismere School, one of a select group of schools trialling the new Studio You content said: “Studio You has totally rejuvenated PE for girls at Fortismere. Traditionally, girls’ participation in PE and physical activity can seriously dip in teenage years.  We have found that the lessons and wide ranging activities included in the Studio You package have been a significant factor in retaining our girls’ motivation for PE and for keeping active.  Importantly it’s given girls in our school a real sense of pride in what they’ve achieved.

“It’s a wonderful resource and we have been delighted to have been involved from the beginning.  Now that the resource is going out nationally schools are in for a real treat.  It’ll be exciting to see the impact on PE over time.”

The Studio You platform has been designed in partnership with leading social impact agency Hopscotch Consulting, responsible for the Department for Transport’s THINK! Road safety education resources and behind high-profile education campaigns and programmes for Vodafone, GSK and Microsoft.

Research references

^[i] Active Lives Children and Young People Survey, Sport England (January 2021)

^[ii] P&G UK 2016 The Always Confidence and Puberty Wave IV study

^[iii] Sport England Secondary Teacher Training Programme research, Sheffield Hallam University

^[iv] Sport England and Hopscotch focus groups run by CHILDWISE with teenage girls from London, Bristol, Leeds and Suffolk (January/February 2020) and Livity in London (February 2020)

^[v] P&G UK 2016 The Always Confidence and Puberty Wave IV study