Liam Lindsay and Ali McCann’s visit to St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School proved to be a ‘big inspiration’ for the school’s pupils.
The Scottish-born pair took time out after training last week to visit St Joseph’s, a partner primary school of Preston North End Community and Education Trust [PNECET], which is less than a mile away from Deepdale.
Lindsay and McCann answered a wide variety of questions from the school’s pupils across multiple year groups.
PNECET deliver the Premier League Primary Stars programme at St Joseph’s, utilising the power and appeal of Preston North End to inspire pupils through cross curricular learning in their PE lessons.
The programme also supports teachers to up-skill their delivery of teaching PE.
Following the visit, St Joseph’s Deputy Head Teacher Martin Gaughan said: “It’s been such a success, the kids have been excited all day looking forward to them [coming in].
“We’re only a mile or so away from the stadium so there’s a big connection with the club. We’ve been showing them a few videos [of the players] this morning and they’ve been really impressed with the level both players have got to.
“We really appreciate the fact that the players have come out during Covid times and with the change of a manager. It’s been great.”
Explaining how the players’ presence at school can inspire pupils, Mr Gaughan continued: “For our children, they always like role models to look up to, we like to be a really active school.
“When they see and hear about the players and how they became active and the sports the players were involved in, and how hard they had to work to get to where they are, then that obviously registers with our children so they know what it takes to get to the very top.
“It’s a big inspiration and it puts things into context for them to aspire to as they get older.”
For more information about the Primary Stars programme, please email jack.mountain@pne.com.