Six Coventry City Player visited children at Provost Williams Primary School
Coventry City players Gael Bigirimana, Chris McCann, Cian Harries, Ryan Haynes, Ben Stevenson and Sam Ricketts all visited Year 5 pupils at Provost Williams C of E Primary School.
The visit formed part of the +Sport Move and Learn project, delivered by Sky Blues in the Community in Primary Schools across Coventry and Warwickshire. The +Sport Move and Learn Project is part of Ferrero’s global Kinder+Sport initiative designed to encourage active lifestyles in children across the world and has already reached over 15 million children worldwide.
The project has been developed in partnership with the EFL Trust and Ferrero and essentially is designed to encourage healthy and active lifestyles in children. Under the banner of ‘+Sport Move and Learn’, Sky Blues in the Community deliver a six week programme of healthy lifestyle and physical activity sessions to 9-10 year old children. Each week, children take part in a 45 minute classroom lesson where they learn about topics including exercise & fitness, the human body, diet & nutrition and hydration. This is then followed by a 45 minute physical activity session with the children participating in 3 main sports – football, handball and dodgeball.
Coventry City First Team players visited the Year 5 pupils at Provost Williams Primary School during Week 5 of the six week programme where the children were learning about The Eatwell Guide. The players encouraged the children to tell them about what they had learned so far and welcomed questions about their diet and training regimes – giving the children a real insight into how professional footballers stay fit and healthy. The players also stopped to sign autographs, have photographs and watch the children take part in their football lesson too.
Coventry City’s Sam Ricketts said: “It’s great to be invited out to see the projects being run by Sky Blues in the Community and meet those involved. You can see that the children have learned a lot and really enjoy this particular project. Being a professional footballer, it is important that the players eat a healthy diet and train on a regular basis. Hopefully we have helped reinforce the key messages that the +Sport Move and Learn project promotes and inspired the children to be active and eat healthily.”
Sky Blues in the Community’s Health Manager, Hiedi Sloan said: “It is always a pleasure having the players visit our activities - the impact they have when they meet children in a school cannot be underestimated. From a health perspective, learning first-hand how professionals keep themselves fit and healthy goes a huge way to inspiring children to adopt healthy behaviours. However, more simply than that, the children genuinely get real excitement and joy from having the opportunity to be in their company.”
To find out more about the +Sport Move and Learn project, please contact Sky Blues in the Community, Health Manager, Hiedi Sloan via Email: hiedi.sloan@ccfc.co.uk or Telephone: 024 7678 6314