Josh Earl was given the warmest of welcomes by Fulwood St Peter's Primary School this week after spending his afternoon at the school as part of PNE's Primary Stars Programme.
The PNE left back made an appearance at the school, located just three miles from Deepdale Stadium where pupils gathered inside the school's assembly hall where a special North End suprise awaited then.
Earl, who celebrated his 19th birthday this week entered the hall to the excitement of the unknowing school children who were delighted to be in the presence of a professional footballer.
Earl took several questions from the children before signing a couple of autographs for each year group - and Kirstie Smith, PE Coordinator at Fulwood St Peter's noted the impact, not only of Earl's appearance but also of the Primary Stars Programme that North End currently deliver in the school.
She said: "We've had Preston North End working with year five and six boys and girls during curriculum time in the afternoons. The children have been loving it and they've really enjoyed the different coaching sessions and activities that they've been doing and it's even better when we're able to get players in.
"There's a lot of people recognising the badge and the children are enjoying seeing the school's badge along with the Preston North End badge which has been good as well.
"They want to do the PE - they've enjoyed going out and doing the PE and the impact you can see is that the enjoyment is coming back.
"We're seeing children who may not usually want to get involved in physical activity wanting to get involved and wanting to do extra curricular activities outside of school.
"There's always been a massive love of football - firstly from the boys but now the girls are enjoying it a lot more now with having the girls football club after school so they're definitely enjoying it too."
"Football is not necessarily a strong point for myself when it comes to delivering PE, but it's been good seeing the different ways to deliver a PE session; I know with the teachers that PNE have been working with, they've all said that they've grown in confidence by seeing other ways of doing different things and they've said that they've enjoyed doing the PE lessons a lot more."
The Preston North End Premier League Primary Stars Programme reaches out to primary schools in the area, promoting healthy active lifestyles and delivering key messages to create healthier and more positive futures for children in the Preston area.
To get your school involved, contact the Trust on 01772 693309 or email Harriet@pne.com now.