Academy stars Marcus Browne and Grady Diangana visited a local school last week, who went West Ham United crazy for the day.
Oakfield Primary School in Wickford, Essex were celebrating all things claret and blue as the West Ham United Foundation held a number of activities throughout the day.
The Foundation spent the whole day laying on various activities in and out of the classroom as the corridors of the school were decked with West Ham United shirts and lots of claret and blue decorations.
The children were set a number of footballing challenges outside and were later joined by Browne and Diangana who both stressed how important it is for the Club to give back to the community.
“I think it’s good coming back to a primary school because it’s where we learned to play football. We probably had the most fun playing football at primary school because we could do whatever we wanted,” said Browne.
“It’s great for the kids when players come into schools in different areas and have a chat and have fun with them.”
“It’s been really fun, all the kids are really enthusiastic. They’re asking a lot of questions about what we do, how old we are so it’s brilliant,” said Diangana.
Inside, some of the children set about creating their own unique commentaries on Dimitri Payet’s wondergoal against Middlesbrough in October.
Some of the students even went back out to try and re-enact the goal and the school’s teacher who helped organise the event, Ashleigh Patterson, said the children thoroughly enjoyed the day.
“West Ham United’s Foundation have created a new project where they go around to schools and try and promote a takeover day where every child has an active part of the day,” she said.
“We decided to go for it, because as a school we are very active and sport plays a big influence on the school. As a West Ham fan myself, I was never going to pass on the opportunity!”
“Today, every child has been thoroughly engaged. They (the players) have created an atmosphere for the children and a lot of excitement has built up.
“You can see by the children’s faces that they’ve had smiles on their faces all day. It’s been brilliant.”