I worked with Premier League Primary Stars earlier this year to celebrate the publication of Try Try Again – a collection of poems by children. I’m excited to be working with them again. Premier League and Primary Stars provide educational campaigns across England and Wales using Football to engage children.
The Premier League Writing Stars poetry competition returns for its second year to inspire children aged between five and eleven to get creative and pen their own poem on the theme of diversity. With Boo’s health hurdles, I was delighted when Premier League Writing Stars still wanted to work with us despite Boo not being able to enjoy PE at the moment as it shows they really are championing diversity and inclusion. Football doesn’t have to be your child’s ‘thing’ for them to take advantage of this amazing opportunity.
A poem, Beautifully Different, Wonderfully the Same by Joeseph Coelho has been specially written for the Premier League Writing Stars poetry competition, check out it being read out by an all-star cast, it’s a lovely poem with words that resonate with both adults and children alike.
Primary school children can then write a poem based on the theme of diversity and enter the competition with some fantastic prizes to be won: –
- A Premier League Trophy visit to your school
- A visit to your school by a children’s author or poet to lead a poetry workshop
- Winning poems read aloud by one of our star judges
- Poems published in an official Premier League Writing Stars book with bespoke illustrations
- An invitation to a national celebration event and the chance to meet other poets and special guests
- A framed version of the winning poems
- Poetry book bags for all winners’ school
The judging panel for this year includes former Premier League footballer Rio Ferdinand, singer and songwriter Olly Murs, Waterstone’s Children’s Laureate Lauren Child, poet Joseph Coelho.
Former Premier League footballer and BT Sport presenter, Rio Ferdinand, said: “Diversity is a really important topic for young people to explore and write about, so I’m very excited to be a part of this year’s Premier League Writing Stars judging panel. As a former Premier League footballer, I’ve shared a dressing room and a pitch with people from different countries, cultures and backgrounds. Football has an amazing ability to unite us, as players, as fans and as people. As a parent with an interest in poetry, I think Writing Stars can inspire children to openly discuss and celebrate their differences and similarities both at home and in the classroom.”
You can sign up and enter here
Poetry is one of the first ways I was truly able to express myself as a child and I’m so glad that Premier League Writing Stars is helping to bring this to children – here’s a snap of Boo being Boo, because to children, celebrating the wonderful differences of each of us is second nature and something we could learn to do more of from them.
The deadline for registration and submission is 21st December 2018 – Good luck!
Disclosure: A fee was received for my time.
