Last week students from Crane Park Primary School completed the sixth and final session of the Trust’s new Active Minds Programme at our Community Stadium Hub.
Active Minds is a physically active educational program focused on three key areas: Mental Health and Building Emotional Resilience, Diabetes Awareness and Nutrition and Healthy Eating. The programme is specifically designed to raise awareness of critical areas of health and wellbeing.
The Active Minds programme is supported by the Premier League and Professional Footballer's Association. Administered through the Premier League Charitable Fund, the funding helps football clubs to tackle inequality and respond to local challenges, supporting people and their communities to be more inclusive.
Surprise stadium visit
The students were the first cohort of participants to complete the programme and as a surprise were taken pitchside at the Gtech Community Stadium to participate in the final session of the programme.
Whilst sitting inside the stadium the group completed a couple of interactive games to get them thinking about their mental health and emotions and also recapped what had been covered in the previous five weeks.
Understanding behaviour
On returning to the Community Stadium Hub the students completed a worksheet which was designed to help them better understand themselves and their behaviour.
This was followed by ‘cup pong’ where the children would aim to throw a table tennis ball into cups on the other side of the table, and would then discuss the card underneath the cup and what use it could have within their lives to improve mental health. The children discussed the importance of mindfulness, physical activity and the connection between each other, showing a great amount of personal growth from the first session to the final one.
Self-development
Jamie Holme, Health and Wellbeing Project Officer at Brentford FC Community Sports Trust said, “As Crane Park is the first cohort to complete the Active Minds programme I am very sad to see them go, however, the self-development shown over the six weeks has been incredible.
“Many children across the course showed great bravery to talk openly about their feelings, and I'm incredibly proud of that! The teachers at Crane Park have also shown a great deal of interest in their students' mental health and wellbeing which is crucial moving forward.
“I hope the classes at Crane Park continue to develop and take some of the Active Mind's lessons further through their life and can show the resilience they have shown across the six-week programme moving forwards.”
An Inside Look
Watch as we visited Crane Park Primary School during Children's Mental Health Week, to get an inside look at what the Active Minds programme looks like.
Premier League and PFA Community Fund
Active Minds is supported by the Premier League and Professional Footballer's Association. Administered through the Premier League Charitable Fund, the funding helps football clubs to tackle inequality and respond to local challenges, supporting people and their communities to be more inclusive.
This season, 24 professional football club community organisations across the Premier League and English Football League are delivering projects supported by the Premier league and PFA in their local communities.
Nationally, these funded projects have engaged more than 230,000 unique participants in more than 330,000 sessions across England and Wales. Projects are supported by current and former professional football players, and scholars, to enhance the impact on participants.
To find out more about the national fund, please visit premierleague.com.