West Ham United Foundation is one of 100 football club charities across England and Wales delivering the Premier League Primary Stars (PLPS) education programme.
Based at The Foundry, the Foundation’s recently-opened community hub in Beckton, the Hammers’ PLPS programme uses the appeal of football to inspire children aged five-to-11 to be active and develop essential skills on the pitch and in the classroom.
Funded by the Premier League and the Premier League Charitable Fund's partners, PLPS is delivered in dozens of primary schools across east London and beyond, supporting teachers in building students’ confidence in physical education, maths and English though sessions at school and at The Foundry and online resources supported by the National Literacy Trust and PHSE (Personal, Social, Health, and Economic education) Association.
At West Ham United Foundation, PLPS is delivered by lead Rebecca Trott and her team.
“We work across lots of different schools across the Newham, east London and Essex area,” Trott told West Ham TV, speaking at the official launch of The Foundry in October. “We have been working in some schools for over ten years and a lot of impact has happened in them, which is great to see.
“The West Ham crest sells who we are as a Foundation and as a Club. We have really good models and go into lots of schools to work with lots of children with different backgrounds and the impacts we see every year are very positive.
“Being able to bring schools into The Foundry has a huge impact and gives them opportunities they may not have outside of the West Ham United Foundation. We’re able to hold tournaments for those children who may not have played football before, so we’re being supported.”
One child who has benefitted from the PLPS programme is Wuraola, who attends St Edward's Primary School in Green Street, Upton Park, situated next to the site of the former Boleyn Ground.
“What we learn is to value friendship and to always persevere and be the better person when someone is being rude,” she explained. “I do enjoy it when they come. They come every week and it’s really fun because they teach us new things like how to be better at what we do, new skills and how to have better teamwork with our peers.
“The new Foundry building is really nice. It’s warm and cosy like a house and feels like a good environment to be in. I’ve been here and we’ve played football, doing a bit of training, tactics and teamwork and we played some matches which was really fun.”
