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For 16 years, BHAFC Foundation coaches have supported children at Fairlight Primary School in Brighton.

It’s hard to put a number on how many pupils have benefitted in that time, but headteacher Damien Jordan thinks it’s about 6,000.

Damien, who arrived at Fairlight in 2009, quickly saw the benefits in having Foundation coaches and tutors in his school.

Fast forward 16 years and you can see the Foundation’s footprint throughout the school: Foundation tutors deliver PE lessons, literacy and numeracy sessions, coach after-school football clubs, teach coding and robotics, invite teams to compete at Albion Cup inter-school tournaments, up-skill teachers with their PE capabilities, and help teachers fine-tune their lesson plans.

As Damien explains, Fairlight have some unique challenges that the Foundation can help with.

“We’re an inner-city school, we don’t have a school field or any green space,” Damien said.

“Sixty percent of my pupils live in houses without outside space, fifty percent receive free school meals. They’re living in deprived areas and don’t have access to football in the same way as other young people.

“So for us, having all the support we can get for physical activity is so important. Children need to get outside, play, and be healthy.”

THROUGH THE GENERATIONS

Pupils that attended the very first Foundation lessons at Fairlight as eight year olds are in their mid-twenties by now.

Their association with the charity began in 2009, when Fairlight pupils got involved with the ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ campaign.

“I went to an event at the Withdean back when Russell Slade was the manager,” Damien said, “he said he had a vision that every time he drove past a park in Brighton, it would be full of kids wearing Albion shirts.

“He said the club needed to be a huge part of the community. I remember hearing that and thinking ‘that’s exactly what we need’.

“The charity contacted us to let us know what they had to offer, and we just said ‘yes please, keep it coming’. I’m a Brighton supporter too, which helps of course!”

From that point on, Fairlight pupils have had so many opportunities to benefit from Foundation sessions.

A few years ago, Fairlight pupils starred in a Match of the Day film which saw Glenn Murray visit the school to learn about the Foundation’s Soccer STEM programme, which teaches children about coding and robotics.

Fairlights pupils have also had the chance to play at the Withdean, the Amex Stadium, and the club’s training ground.

“Whenever we hear about anything the Foundation is doing we always say ‘yes, yes, yes, what can we do?’, I don’t think we’ve ever said no to anything,” Damien says.

“It’s a two-way street, the Foundation support us and we support them. We’ve had coaches do their training at our school so they can develop, and I’ve had former pupils go on to work as coaches for the Foundation.

“The charity is just such a huge part of our school now.”

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

One of the biggest appeals of working with Foundation tutors is how well they manage to get the best out of all their pupils.

No matter what their interests, abilities, or circumstances, children will walk away from a lesson feeling happy and engaged.

“One of the after-school football clubs the Foundation currently runs for us is for our very smallest children – a group of children that we simply couldn’t offer football for – and there are so many pupils who benefit from that,” Damien says.

A lot of his pupils also benefit from the Foundation’s Premier League Kicks free football sessions in Whitehawk.

“On a Thursday, a lot of our pupils play football at Premier League Kicks. Being free is a huge draw for our kids, and it keeps them busy and active.

“Often these sorts of sessions either don’t exist for inner-city kids, or they have to pay quite a lot of money to take part. At Kicks they just turn up for free and play.”

Fairlight is a fairly football-mad school, but there are still plenty of children who aren’t that interested in the sport.

“What’s interesting is that the Foundation don’t just do football,” Damien said.

“They’ll teach all sorts of different sports in their PE lessons, which means even the children who don’t like football look forward to PE.”

Disability sport is another area that schools typically can’t cover, but the Foundation can.

“We’ve also benefitted from having the Foundation’s disability football coaches come in. It gives us a rare chance for some of our pupils with a disability to learn from people who look like them, who sound like them.

“For some of our children, maybe it’s the first time they’ve met someone who’s deaf, someone who has cerebral palsy. They’re such good role models for our pupils.”

THE IMPACT OF COACHES

A teacher sees their class every day, and their pupils see them as an authority figure. Sometimes, having a coach come in to the classroom and try things from a different angle can make all the difference.

“Having Foundation tutors in the classroom is so beneficial too,” Damien says.

“It gives us that extra chance at having someone who might make a breakthrough, who might encourage a pupil to realise there’s a point in learning.”

Coaches often end up being popular figures at their schools; seeing someone wearing an Albion badge in their school can be a very cool experience for younger pupils.

“Our kids get to see something in their community that they’d only normally see playing video games or watching football on the TV,” Damien said.

“It makes Premier League football real, and something that exists in their community. It gets them excited to learn.

“I’ve seen Foundation coaches wandering around the school before their sessions start, and the kids all know their names and want to talk to them. There are honestly hundreds of children who know these coaches, and the coaches know all of them. They’ll sit and talk to them, spend time with them, coach them.

“They’ll know about the kids’ football development, but also about their reading and their maths, how their mums are getting on, what their hobbies are. You can tell that they really care.”

MAKING MEMORIES

As fun as PE can be, nothing sticks in the memory like meeting a professional footballer.

It began back in 2009, when Albion goalkeeper Michel Kuipers became Fairlight’s nominated player.

“He came in every week – every single week – to sit and read with our kids,” Damien said, “Michel was fantastic, and he was just the first player we had.

“Having players get involved is an unforgettable moment for these kids. We recently had Matt O’Riley come and visit to help deliver a workshop about sign language, and you should’ve seen how excited that class were to meet him.

“He’s done this in his own time, he didn’t have to come and meet these kids but he wanted to do it. A Premier League footballer coming to their school, to their space, is so exciting for them.

“Joel Veltman went to play at a free football session after school with some of our pupils a couple of years ago, and they still talk about it. It became a legendary story that they always talk about on the playground, the day that their mate Joel Veltman came down to play football with them at the park.

“Maybe sadly as a headteacher, what these kids remember when they leave us isn’t a maths or an English lesson, it’s the day that Matt O’Riley came to visit. Those are the moments they’ll remember forever.”