José Mourinho, Theo Walcott and Gary Cahill are fronting a campaign to use the glamour of top-flight football to inspire children in 10,000 primary schools.
They are among stars appearing in a national TV advertising campaign, from this Sunday, to promote the Premier League Primary Stars programme.
The initiative will provide teacher resources for key stages 1 and 2, linked to the curriculum, and including lesson plans, activity ideas, work sheets and video content.
The plan is to inspire learning in maths, English, PE, and personal, social, health and economic education, and involves 88 premier league and English Football League clubs in England and Wales.
Each teaching pack uses real life sport examples to put the lesson content into a context relevant to and engaging for children, with clear teaching instructions to ensure the resources are easy to use. Registered schools will also be able to enter competitions to win a visit from the Premier League trophy and apply for teaching support materials such as book boxes or PE kit and equipment.
Sky Sports Friday Night Football co-host and mathematician Rachel Riley, who helped to create the maths resources, said: “Maths is a subject that a lot of young people find challenging and is often dismissed as boring. What I love about the resources we’ve developed for the Premier League Primary Stars programme is that it makes maths relevant to children’s everyday lives.
“I’ve seen the reaction from children using the lesson plans - they are excited, interested and engaged. I think this is a fantastic programme that will undoubtedly inspire children to learn but also give teachers the tools to be creative with their lessons. Anything that excites primary school children about maths gets a gold star from me.”
Primary schools can register for free on www.plprimarystars.com to enable access to the programme’s full portfolio of resources.