With unemployment being a major issue to local authorities, we feel it is our job to upskill, educate and encourage our community to take their first steps onto the career ladder. We provide qualifications, volunteer opportunities and paid employment to both young people and adults to maximise their chance of future success.

We are confident that with our connections, experience and high quality educational projects, we have a route for everyone across Coventry and Warwickshire.

Premier League Primary Stars (PLPS)

The Premier League Primary Stars programme has been designed to inspire children to learn, be active and develop important life skills. The programme uses PE, along with the Premier League values, to create an environment for children of all ages and abilities to learn and enjoy becoming more active. As well as encouraging increased engagement from pupils the programme looks at supporting teachers become more confident planning and delivering PE lessons through a CPD element across the 6 weeks. The class teacher will work closely with SBITC coaches to highlight areas they believe they can improve and as they progress through the programme will develop skills to allow them to comfortably lead PE sessions for the class. All lessons on the programme are focused on fundamental movement skills (Agility, Balance & Coordination) and are tailored to be inclusive for a pupils. This programme also comes with a free ASC and every child & teacher taking part on these sessions will be entitled to a CCFC Matchday ticket voucher.

Premier League Reading Stars

The Premier League Reading Stars is an intervention programme focused on reading for targeted pupils within the school who are underachieving in reading or are not motivated to read. The programme uses football based materials to try and create an environment for pupils to learn better. Over the programme, the children have the opportunity to practice their reading skills, including reading for enjoyment, comprehension, and inference, using the football related resources and texts. The programme can be used to boost children who are underachieving due to lack of motivation but can also boost those children who are already able readers but do not enjoy reading and make slower progress as a result.

Joy Of Moving

Sky Blues in the Community are proud to be part of the Joy of moving programme.

Ferrero UK’s corporate social responsibility project, the Joy of moving programme, which has been developed and delivered through a partnership with EFL Trust for over seven years, is based on methodology which is designed to inspire children to move though play and captures the fun approach, which we know is key. The methodology was established by independent experts, including Foro Italico (Rome University) and the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) and focuses on developing key skills in four major areas:

• Physical fitness
• Motor coordination
• Cognitive functions & creativity
• Life skills

The Joy of moving programme is delivered within schools and consists of two elements; the Move & Learn project and Joy of moving Festivals.

The programme has moved over 400,000 children providing them with over 2,000,000 additional hours of learning and activity.

This year, Sky Blues in the Community are looking to inspire over 1500 children to develop lifelong habits which we hope will see them grow into active adults.

Move & Learn

Move & Learn is targeted at children aged 9 and 10 – a key milestone in a child’s development – and is designed to appeal to every child through a fun and engaging approach. Consisting of 9 hours of education over six weeks, plus a series of home-based family challenges, children learn about the importance of physical activity and how to eat a balanced diet and lead an active lifestyle. We also work hard to support and encourage schools to adopt the ideas and approach in the longer term.  

We are seeing the results from taking this approach. Children respond with huge positivity, telling us that they have a better understanding of why it’s important to be active and to eat a balanced and varied diet. They are also more motivated to stay active. In fact, our latest evaluation of the programme has shown that 94% of children felt that the six weeks had given them new ideas to get active.

Joy of moving Festivals

Alongside Move & Learn, we run the Joy of moving Festivals that involve the full school during the summer term. These half or full day events are a celebration of being active. Children take part in a range of fun challenges and games during the day.

If you are a school wanting to get involved in the Joy of moving programme – please contact sam.flatley@sbitc.org.uk

Joy of moving Resource hub

Having to adapt to the pandemic, an online resource, the Joy of moving Resource Hub, was made available to parents to keep their children active. The resource hub features several fun activities that can be played in the house or in the garden. Check out the games for inspiration on how to get your family moving through play!

Football Education Programme

The Sky Blues Football Education Programme is a partnership between Sky Blues in the Community and Coventry College. This partnership is in place to support young people to have a pathway into a future in playing or non-playing roles in Football in the future. Young people enrolled have the opportunity to complete a Level 2 Steps or Level 3 Diploma in Sport with Coventry College, while representing Sky Blues in the Community and Coventry City Football Clun in the Community and Education Alliance Central 2 League.

In the 2021/2022 academic year, the programme has over 20 young people enrolled on a course and playing competitive Football on a weekly basis against other professional Football Community organizations. In addition, the young people train twice a week at the Alan Higgs Centre, home of Coventry City Academy, coached by UEFA A and B Sky Blues in the Community coaches. 

For more information  on the Football Education programme and how to enroll please click here.

If you would like to know more about the programme or have any questions as well as confirming your or someone else’s attendance to the next open evening or trail day, please contact sam.flatley@sbitc.org.uk

Foundation Degree

Sky Blues in the Community in partnership with the EFL Trust and University of South Wales offer a Foundation Degree in Community Football Coaching and Development. The degree is delivered by the University of South Wales with a high level of academic tutoring, with Sky Blues in the Community offering real world experience of coaching across the charity’s five themes.

The Foundation degree course sees students having a great standard of tutoring, predominantly online with two residential visit’s a year to the University of South Wales and individual mentoring support from one of the team at Sky Blues in the Community.

If you would like more information about the Sky Blues in the Community’s Foundation Degree options in partnership with the University of South Wales and are either interested or no someone who might want to join for the 2022/23 academic year, please contact NCS/Education Manager, Sam Flatley at sam.flatley@sbitc.org.uk.