Five primary schools from Wolverhampton and surrounding areas were welcomed to Molineux to compete in the Wolves Foundation Social Action Challenge as a part of the Premier League Primary Stars programme.
The challenge was created to inspire young children and educate them on how they can work together to make a positive change including sessions on sustainability, eco-friendly and environmental change.
Wolves Foundation staff worked with each school for six weeks, delivering a variety of important sessions.
The children were tasked with a workshop which required teamwork, resilience and determination regarding the knowledge they had learnt in their recent sessions. All produced excellent presentations, but it was St Mary’s Primary School from Albrighton who were crowned winners following a vote from those present.
The other schools who also engaged brilliantly with the event comprised Woden Primary School, SS Peter & Paul Catholic Academy, Bushbury Hill Primary School and Stowlawn Primary School.
Wolves Women midfielder Merrick Will, who works within the operations team at Wolves Academy and has recently become one of the club’s One Pack One Planet ambassadors, expressed how proud she is to be involved.
She said: “Today is a One Pack One Planet event which is something I have recently enjoyed getting involved in.
“I’ve become more and more interested in areas like climate change and sustainability, so I’ve enjoyed my role within that and learning more.
“The event has been really nice – I like to help where I can, so it’s been great to have an influence on their education around sustainability.
“Just to get out there in the community with children who are big Wolves fans and don’t always get the chance to meet women’s and men’s players very often is great.
Richard Lewis, senior schools officer with the Foundation, oversaw the project.
“The schools that took up our offer had six weeks’ worth of workshops as part of our Primary League Premier Stars programme, where we were trying to encourage children to become involved in trying to help the planet,” he explained.
“We have spoken throughout the project about how we can make Molineux more sustainable and also around the community.
“This event is all about the groups coming in to showcase their ideas and the winning team will potentially be helped by the Foundation to bring their project to life.”
Sam Holmes, deputy headteacher of St Mary’s Primary School, expressed how much the group enjoyed the event.
“I think the event is fantastic, it allows them to develop different skills,” he said.
“To be able to prepare a project which they have fully designed themselves and then to be able to share that with various guests by speaking publicly has been fantastic.
“I am so proud of – not just the winning team – but all our year six children. They have worked so hard on it and it’s completely their work – which makes it even better.”
The event, hosted by Gemma Frith, also featured a Q&A session with various guests offering their views and thoughts about sustainability and the environment.
The panel was made up of Richard Lewis, Merrick Will, Ross McKinley – head of education at the Premier League, Rich Holmes – founder of Final Third, a sustainability group that support clubs and charitable organisation in football and Mrs Godfrey – a teacher from Woden School.
Congratulations to all the schools involved for contributing to such a fantastic and powerful event.
By Thomas Gibson
