Teacher Bobby Seagull’s childhood fascination with football sticker statistics sparked his other lifelong passion - mathematics.
Before moving into education, Seagull, an Emmanuel College, Cambridge graduate, was an investment banking trader at Lehman Brothers & Nomura. A qualified Chartered Accountant, Seagull eventually found his true calling as a teacher.
Drawing inspiration from his childhood, Seagull, a lifelong West Ham fan, often uses football as a hook to get his young students interested in maths.
He said: “As a school teacher, I know that sometimes if you're teaching maths, students can be like, 'oh no, Mr Seagull, maths!'.
“But if you try and use real-life examples like football, and my students and I support West Ham, it can get them that little engagement, that spark, that means that they're more likely to want to learn.”
After rising to national attention on University Challenge in 2017, Seagull has become a familiar face in British education circles, using his platform to share his passion for maths and learning.
During that time, he also became the West Ham United Foundation Education Ambassador. But even before then, Seagull himself had engaged with the Foundation’s work as a participant on a health and wellbeing project, where he met then-record signing Matt Jarvis.
“I’m someone who was born and raised in East Ham, lived in Stratford, and have been a West Ham supporter my whole life,” Seagull continued.
“In fact, I actually came to this venue as a participant 15 years ago for a Healthy Hearts programme and I actually, weirdly enough, met Matt Jarvis. To see how this has developed from a place that still supported the community, but is now a real community hub, a space that can genuinely transform the lives of young people and their families, I think it shows that West Ham is genuinely a community-first Club.”
The Foundation in Beckton has changed a lot since that encounter with Jarvis. In 2017, Vice-Chairman Baroness Karen Brady was joined by WHUF CEO Joseph Lyons as they unveiled the all-weather 3G pitch and this year, they cut the ribbon of the multi-million pound redevelopment of the community hub.
The Foundry state-of-the-art facility will reach more than 60,000 people every year through its dedicated programmes, generating an estimated £75 million of social value in its first five years.
Seagull said: “So, I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview a few months ago, but seeing it here today, alive with lots of young children coming here for the programmes, the adults, the supporters, the trustees, ambassadors, the patrons, really gives you that sense of West Ham as a community.
“We know that life can be challenging for young people and in this area, it's always been like that historically, but this Foundry, I think is almost like, without being cheesy, it's like a beacon of hope, with the Irons and it shining out into the area, and I think it just shows people that the Club really wants to help uplift everyone. Whether they're a footballer or not, I think the Club is a huge part of what makes east London, east London.”
