Mon 25 April 2022, 18:00
Tottenham HotspurPierre-Emile Hojbjerg visited the London Academy of Excellence Tottenham (LAET) to provide support and motivation for students ahead of their upcoming exams.
LAET is a state funded Sixth Form based on the Club’s stadium campus, giving the brightest local students the best chance to access the country’s top Universities.
Pierre sat down with five students and Paul Spraggs, Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead, to give some words of encouragement and advice around the importance of looking after your mental health.
The students also had the opportunity to ask Pierre some questions of their own including how he mentally prepares for matches and how he himself has overcome obstacles.
Speaking at the school, Pierre said: “It was a real pleasure to visit the London Academy of Excellence Tottenham and meet some of the students there. Ahead of their exams, it is so important that they continue to look after their mental and physical health, and hopefully I was able to give them good advice and encouragement. They are all incredibly smart and I am confident that they will do very well in their exams.”
Paul commented: “I think it was special for the students to have Pierre come in at the start of our summer term when they have exams looming and nerves can be heightened. The students came away from it with a better understanding that it's normal to feel stressed and anxious sometimes, particularly around exam periods, and that there are ways of managing these feelings and proactively working through them. Pierre taking an interest in our young people and relating to them on a human level is invaluable, and we are extremely appreciative."
Mominah Ramzan, student at LAET, added: “Meeting Pierre was incredibly beneficial, and highly inspiring! For the majority of students at LAET, the upcoming exams are the first official exams we will take, due to the pandemic, so understandably many students are very anxious and stressed. It was great being able to speak to Pierre about his experiences as a footballer, and his amazing advice for us students. All around, he gave all of us the motivation that we needed to see our exams through. Huge thank you to Pierre for taking the time out to come and speak to us.”
Sponsored by Tottenham Hotspur and Highgate School, LAE Tottenham was recently named The Sunday Times Sixth Form College of the Year, with an incredible 75% of its students winning places at Russell Group Universities following last year’s A-Level results, including at Oxford and Cambridge.
It prioritises local students most likely to benefit from an academically-rigorous curriculum and those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, giving Tottenham’s brightest students the best possible chance of accessing top universities.
This is in the context of the school being situated within one of the 2% most deprived wards in the country, with 63% of its student body coming from the lowest two social groups - described as living in 'struggling estates' or 'difficult circumstances' - using the ACORN tool for socio-economic analysis.
