Playing for Success (PfS) began in 1997 as a partnership between the Department for Children, Schools and Families (then the Department for Education and Employment), the Premier League, its clubs and their partner local authorities.

Through PfS, the Department and its partners have established out of hours study support centres at sports’ clubs grounds. The centres focus on raising literacy, numeracy and information communication technology (ICT) standards amongst Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils, identified by their schools as at risk of underachieving. The centres use the environment and stimulus of sport to help motivate pupils and are equipped with state-of-the art IT facilities.

Each centre is managed by a centre manager (an experienced teacher), supported by tutor mentors and other support staff. Following the success of PfS in the Premier League, the initiative was quickly extended to football clubs in the Championship. In 2000 in response to the tremendous interest shown, the Department extended the initiative to other football clubs and sports. From 2002 the Football Foundation became a partner in supporting football clubs outside the Premier League and Championship. Further expansions in 2004 and 2005 brought in more clubs and sports, including athletics, horseracing and speedway. In all there are now 153 clubs committed to PfS representing 16 different sports.

The Football Foundation is the largest sports charity in the country, funded by the Premier League, the Football Association and the Government. It uses the power of football to improve facilities, create opportunities and build communities. The Playing for Success partnership with the DCSF has enabled the Foundation to do exactly that – through supporting football clubs to develop study support centres with real ‘wow’ factor that aim to improve numeracy, literacy and ICT standards.

QiSS Quality in Study Support  The QiSS recognition scheme promotes quality in study support and provides a structure and a process for the quality assurance of study support delivered through schools, Playing for Success centres, summer and children’s universities and voluntary and community organisations.

Reading the Game

Reading The Game (RTG) is an initiative of the National Literacy Trust which helps study centres at football clubs maximise opportunities to promote literacy and to raise reading motivation. While RTG currently has a football focus, many of the ideas have already been extended into other sports and this is an important area of development for the future of the initiative. For more information please visit: www.readingthegame.org.uk Projects include:

Reading is Fundamental, UK (RIF)

RIF targets children who are less likely to have books at home, and provides them with the opportunity to choose and keep up to three free books. So far, RTG has run 42 RIF projects through PfS centres in football clubs, including Manchester City, Preston North End and West Ham United, distributing over 24,000 books to over 8,000 children.

Premier League Reading Stars (PLRS)

PLRS creates family reading groups based in libraries that are partnered with their local Premier League club. Reading Champions from all twenty Premier League clubs nominate their favourite adult and children’s titles, which are discussed within each group. Each library is provided with free copies of the titles and the participating families receive free books at a bookshop visit. Each club provides incentives for the groups, as end of project rewards, ranging from player visits to free match tickets. Groups from Liverpool’s PLRS project enjoyed an end of season presentation ceremony in the Reduc@te Centre, hosted by Study Centre Manager Keith White. The families enjoyed a tour of the ground, followed by the presentation of certificates by Liverpool centre back Alvaro Arbeloa. 1,120 children and parents took part in the scheme in 2006 and 95 per cent of children said it made them want to read more. In 2007, PLRS will develop further by piloting the project in prisons and young offender institutions.

Kick into Reading (KiR)

KiR delivers storytelling sessions to school children in libraries. Members of football clubs, including community coaches and academy players, receive training from a professional storyteller and then deliver stories to children at their local libraries. Children and their families also attend a family day at the club. So far, over 15,000 children have taken part in KiR nationally, through 14 football clubs ranging from the Premier League to League Two.

An important outcome of the 2005/06 projects was that 90 per cent of school teachers thought that KiR had improved the status of the club in the community. Clubs involved in 2007 included Plymouth Argyle FC, Reading FC and Brentford FC.

Playing With Words (PWW)

PWW is a school-based reading initiative that sees Football League clubs challenging local pupils to read 100 books in one term. The scheme is delivered through PfS centres, which arrange for special rewards once the groups reaches this target. Each class involved receives free books, with pupils recording their reading choices in a PWW reading journal. A clubbranded class reading achievement wall chart tracks their progress. 2007 was the first year of project activity and has involved 12 Football League clubs, each partnering with one secondary and two primary schools. The scheme will extend to 24 clubs in 2008. PfS centre managers organise rewards at the end of each school term, with over 2,000 children already this year enjoying such activities as PfS centre sessions, and free ground tours and match tickets. Centre managers have enjoyed extending the reach of their work to new schools, allowing many more children to experience the inspirational surroundings of a PfS centre. The Football League clubs involved in 2007 included Colchester United, Northampton Town and Sunderland.

Playing With Words (PWW) – Rugby and Rugby Reading Stars

Following a request from a number of PfS centre managers, Playing With Words rugby and Rugby Reading Stars have been piloted through four PfS centres, The Cornish Pirates, Gloucester, Dewsbury Rams and Warrington Wolves. This is supported by Wooden Spoon, Premier Rugby, The National Literacy Trust and the DCSF, the aim being to include every rugby club in the next academic year.

Reading Champions

This DCSF-funded initiative of the National Reading Campaign aims to involve boys and men in creating a reading culture. An adult Reading Champion is nominated as a positive role model to talk enthusiastically and passionately about reading, particularly encouraging boys who may be reluctant readers. Reading Champions include footballers, club staff, PfS staff, coaches, press officers and TV pundits. PfS centres involve Reading Champions in various inspiring ways, from reading and discussing the books they recommend, to developing research skills in pupils for them to write interview questions to put to the Champions. 36 Playing for Success

Deon had never shown any interest in reading. However, at his first PLRS session with his mum, Deon borrowed Cloud Busting by Malorie Blackman – one of the titles from the project’s ‘Subs Bench’ – and he couldn’t put it down. Storming through the book, Deon’s mum was amazed that the following week he spent his pocket money on two more books. His shocked mum said: “I’ve tried for years to get him into reading and it’s always been a struggle. And now all of a sudden, he reads when he gets home from school, and he even read aloud to classmates in school!” Deon’s mum attended a recent parents’ evening where she was told they couldn’t believe his progress, she said: “Everyone said how much more confident he’d been in class.”

Bristol City FC Study Support Centre has very successfully integrated its PfS and RIF sessions within Reading for Meaning and Creative Writing. One of the PfS sessions is a bookshop visit for the pupils to choose their RIF books, with a short story read by bookshop staff. At later PfS sessions, each child has 90 seconds to ‘sell’ the plot of their book or describe their favourite character. Children then use the story line or characters to write a poem or lyrics.

Jan Perry from Connaught School in Bristol said: “PWW has made such a difference to our children’s motivation to read. They are always asking when they can read more of the books from the PWW book box and they’re forever outside the classroom looking at the wall chart display counting the stickers – they are desperate to get the prizes!”

The Premier League

The work that the Premier League and its clubs do in the community has broadened and diversified to include an extraordinary range of projects. But none has had as far-reaching an impact as Playing for Success, our longest running community education programme. This year sees the 10th anniversary of the project, and the Premier League is proud to see how the project has grown in that time.

From an initial start with just three teams, 19 of the 20 Barclays Premier League clubs are now represented under Playing for Success. The partnership is a perfect example of how football clubs can use the power of their brand, particularly amongst young people, to create a unique recipe for student achievement. The message is clear; education is something that you can enjoy and sport has a crucial motivational role in this innovative approach to learning. Playing for Success is also a reflection of the strength of the partnership between the key stakeholders: the Department for Children, Schools and Families, local authorities, the Premier League and its clubs.

The quality of these partnerships is reflected in how successful Playing for Success has become. Over 220,000 students have benefited since the programme started and more than 55,000 are set to benefit each year when all new centres are open. And the scheme has shown that it can have a significant impact on achievement and is proven to raise standards in literacy, numeracy and ICT.

Playing for Success has also diversified, with 15 clubs now involved in the Double Club programme, where a track-suited member of the club staff works within local schools to implement a programme of literacy and numeracy activities and specialist football coaching. And many clubs also entered the Premier League Aspiring Journalist competition last season, where students demonstrated their literacy skills by writing a short match report or player interview. A judging panel comprising of representatives from the Department, the Premier League and the national media awarded first prize to a student from a Reading school.

The Premier League looks forward to continuing its central role in Playing for Success as it no doubt continues to grow over the next ten years.