Under-18s go to 'Football School' on World Book Day

To celebrate World Book Day, the Club’s Under-18 Academy scholars joined Ben Lyttleton, co-author of the best-selling ‘Football School’ book series, for a special assembly at Lea Valley Primary School in Tottenham.

Elliot Thorpe and Enock Asante helped Ben run an interactive assembly covering lessons in biology, geography, drama and maths, all taught through the language of football. Children learned everything from what footballers eat before a game, how to act out goal celebrations and how to become a Tottenham Hotspur Academy player. The scholars also joined a Year 3 class as they completed a fun literacy quiz and read stories.

In addition to this session, throughout March, the Club is taking Academy scholars to primary schools across Haringey to read popular children’s stories to Year 2 and Year 3 pupils, supported by professional story-teller Tony Dallas.

Before going into the schools, all Academy scholars complete a storytelling training course led by Dallas, who has worked with the Club for over 10 years. Here, they learn techniques to tell a good story including speaking in different accents, changing their tone of voice and acting out parts of the story to capture children’s imaginations.

As well as being an enjoyable experience for local children, sessions like these help the scholars develop vocational skills such as public speaking and presentation skills – all of which enable them to achieve success on and off the pitch.

Ben Lyttleton, co-author of Football School, said: “We are passionate about helping children develop a love of reading and a curiosity about the world and we believe that using football is an excellent way to encourage reluctant readers to pick up a book. Reading for pleasure can have many advantages, with proven benefits including a dramatic impact on educational performance, self-confidence, well-being and social mobility, as well as improved vocabulary and imaginative thinking.”

Under-18s midfielder Elliot Thorpe said: “It’s been brilliant visiting the children today, helping them with their reading and talking to them about our lives as footballers. I was quite nervous at first standing in front of that many children, but as soon as we started it was really enjoyable. The children’s enthusiasm was infectious – I couldn’t help but smile and have fun.”