Premier League supports Swansea City AFC Foundation to give local primary school pupils free books
Swansea City AFC Foundation distributed free books to local schools and invited them to a special day at the Swansea.com Stadium to mark World Book Day, and the work of the Premier League Primary Stars education programme.
St David’s Catholic Primary School and Mary Immaculate Catholic Primary School joined the Foundation to celebrate World Book Day with a workshop from author David Brayley, a visit from Swansea City academy players, and a stadium tour.
Rohan Davies, Sam Seager and Osian Williams from the under-18s' squad provided insight into the books they like to read, and about healthy living, by taking part in a question and answer session with the children.
Since Premier League Primary Stars began in 2017, more than 300,000 free books with an estimated value of £2.4million have been gifted to young people, thanks to the initiative's partnership with the National Literacy Trust.
The Swans Foundation is one of 100 professional football club community organisations across England and Wales to give away the free books to local primary schools, with 2024 alone seeing 50,000 books provided across the scheme.
World Book Day promotes reading for pleasure, offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own as, according to National Literacy Trust research, children who own their own books are much more likely to enjoy reading, read daily and read to relax.
“To celebrate World Book Day in this way, inviting some of our partner schools to the stadium, has been brilliant,” said Ceri Phillips, education manager at Swansea City AFC Foundation.
“The students were really interested in David Brayley’s workshop as a professional in the field of books, and then for the academy boys to surprise the children added real excitement to the day.
“It’s so important for us to promote reading for pleasure because the children can learn so many skills from just one book.
“When we got the books out for the children to choose from, the excitement was huge. To see that and to be able to give them the opportunity to take a free book home with them is great, so I’d like to thank the Premier League and National Literacy Trust for helping us with that.”