A Sheffield secondary school has made a visit to Sheffield Wednesday to develop skills in confidence and creativity as part of an ongoing educational project with the club.
Year eight and nine pupils from Firth Park School visited the football club which saw them have a behind the scenes tour of the ground, speak to specialist Sheffield Wednesday staff and take part in activities with the club’s community programme.
The project, which sees the Sheffield Wednesday Community Programme provide specialist educational training to the school children, aims to improve their employability and future potential.
Facilitated by the Sheffield Wednesday Community Programme, the club’s charitable arm, the pupils took part in group activities at the ground which included working together to generate ideas for the club’s community event, Owls in the Park which takes place on Sunday 13 July.
As part of their trip, Sheffield Wednesday staff, Ticket Office Manager Alastair Wilson and Public Relations Officer Jade March, gave a talk to the pupils about their jobs at the club and also offered career advice.
The pupils have also been granted the title ‘Cultural Ambassadors’ and will now go back to their school to spread the word about what they learned and gained on the trip to Sheffield Wednesday.
Rachael Fidler, a year eight pupil at Firth Park, said: “Our day started with a short but fascinating tour of the ground where we saw the kid’s zone, the Hillsborough memorial, the home and away dressing room and drug test room! The day was an amazing eye-opener for me and the rest of the group and we enjoyed this great experience we were given by the Sheffield Wednesday staff.”
Zeena Rasheed from Firth Park, said: “It’s been fantastic for the pupils to come down to the ground for the educational trip and we’re so grateful to the community programme for making it happen for us.
“The programme has helped teach pupils about the softer skills that are essential to develop for future education or employment. Those skills being confidence, organisation and positivity. It’s really important that our pupils are reaching out and learning from the community in which they live and we can’t thank the club’s community programme enough for helping us with that.”
Matt Bray, Social Inclusion Manager from the Sheffield Wednesday Community Programme, said: “The Firth Park pupils were excellent and really got involved in the day’s activities. It’s always good for pupils to get out of the school setting and explore large organisations like Sheffield Wednesday to give them an idea of the sort of place they could potentially work at in the future.
“The ongoing project with the school see’s us work directly with the pupils which is great in terms of engagement and reaching out to the community.”