Blue Heaven!
Knowsley Schools Visit to Everton Football Club
Picture: Knowsley pupils take in the atmosphere at Goodison Park
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Apart from seeing your favourite team winning assorted cup finals and league championships, the ideal day for most supporters would surely be to have an ‘access all areas’ pass to what happens behind the scenes at the club.
Thanks to Assistant Headteacher Gareth Hughes at St Edmund of Canterbury School and Mike Dickenson (Head of Education and Welfare) at the academy at Everton Football Club, this dream came true for pupils from three Huyton schools: Knowsley Hey, St Thomas Becket and St Edmund of Canterbury.
As part of the ‘Excellence in Cities’ initiative, Year 9 pupils spent a day working with Everton Football Club and the Liverpool Echo on a sports journalism project.
Initially, staff and pupils spent time watching the first team train at Bellefield where they had the opportunity to meet the players, get autographs and pose for photographs before going on to Goodison Park for a guided tour of the stadium.
The afternoon was spent working with Ken Rogers, Sports Editor of the Liverpool Echo, who ran a workshop based on interviewing players and the pupils were given an insight into media relations by Alan Myers the Press and Media Officer at the club.
The pupils then had the opportunity to practise their newly acquired skills by writing up a match report on the game between Everton and Aston Villa’s reserves at the Autoquest Stadium, Widnes, which Everton won 1-0. “I learned the skills you need to be a journalist,’ said Bradley Maher from Knowsley Hey, adding, “It was fantastic getting behind the scenes with the Club and the players.”
“I would like to thank Everton Football Club and Mr Dickenson in particular, for their support of this truly unique project,” said Mr Hughes who added, “The pupils have gained a tremendous amount from this initiative. It is wonderful to see the three schools working so closely on the project.”
The whole experience doesn’t end there however, because the club kindly agreed to allow our young reporters access to a premier league game in order to further develop their writing skills.
Watch this space in the next issue to find out how they got on.