Notts County Foundation were represented by Edwalton Primary School in the Burton regional heats of the Premier League Primary Stars National Girls tournament, in a bid to claim their place at the 2023 finals. Despite being unsuccessful at progressing onto the next round, the team representing Notts COunty Foundation were given the ‘Fair Play award’ for being the most respectful team towards playing opposition and referees.
Ten regional tournaments were staged at community facilities across the country, with hundreds of young people representing Premier League, EFL and National League clubs hoping to win the opportunity to play at Elland Road, home of Leeds United, in the playing kit of their respective professional football club. Last year, more than 800 young people took part in the regional events. Caerleon Lodge Primary School, representing Newport County, are the current champions having won the tournament in 2022 at Vicarage Road. The National Girls Football Tournament is one of the competition elements of the Premier League Primary Stars programme. Launched in 2017 and available to every primary school in England and Wales, Premier League Primary Stars uses the appeal of football to help children to be active and develop essential life skills.
Premier League Head of Community Nick Perchard said: “The Premier League Primary Stars National Girls Tournament creates an amazing opportunity for girls from across England and Wales to come together and represent their professional football clubs. The regional tournaments help to get more girls into football and bring young people together from diverse backgrounds.”
Premier League Primary Stars enables teachers to use resources across English, PSHE, PE and Maths, to support children to develop skills and values that are crucial to success in later life. Currently 104 professional football clubs from across the leagues run in-classroom Premier League Primary Stars sessions in local partner schools.
Notts County Foundation Sport and Inclusion Officer Stefan Furgala said: “The Premier League Primary Stars tournament was a great opportunity for school teams to compete against each other and was a chance for young people to do something they may not have done before. The tournament will have rewarded the girls and give them the confidence to play Football out of the school environment. Since the success of England’s Lionesses, we are seeing more and more girls who want to play Football, and this is another great way to boost engagement levels.”
The free primary school programme provides teachers and parents with downloadable resources across a range of curriculum subjects at Key Stage 1 (age 5-7) and Key Stage 2 (age 7-11), developed by teachers for teachers, and in collaboration with experts such as the National Literacy Trust and the PSHE Association. More than 60,000 teachers have signed up to access free online national curriculum-linked resources.
To view the TikTok of the Notts County Foundation representatives in action, click here.
