St Joseph's Catholic School to represent Swansea City AFC Foundation at Premier League Inspires Challenge

Swansea City AFC Foundation will be represented by St Joseph’s Catholic School in the Premier League Inspires Challenge at Wembley Stadium next month.

St Joseph’s Catholic School, Dylan Thomas Community School, Llangatwg Community School and Pontarddulais Comprehensive School all recently competed in the first round of the Premier League Inspires Challenge at the Swansea.com Stadium.

This year’s topic focuses on mental health as part of the Premier League’s 'Inside Matters' campaign, which aims to provide advice on how to understand and manage feelings of anxiety.

Students were tasked with coming up with an idea for a project to help improve and support the mental health of their fellow classmates, with all four schools making a presentation to a panel of judges.

Swansea City chairman Andy Coleman, club ambassador Lee Trundle, head of Swansea City AFC Foundation Paul France, and the Foundation’s head of health and wellbeing Caroline Gwilym sat on the panel to provide feedback for the school pupils.

The panel chose St Joseph’s as worthy winners of the challenge for their inspirational pitch and idea to develop a supportive community for their school.

Premier League Inspires coordinator at the Foundation, Matthew Jenkins, has been working with the students on their projects, and was pleased with their engagement on such an important topic.

“I think this year’s topic of ‘Inside Matters’ is an extremely relevant one,” said Jenkins.

“Young people have a lot of challenges in the modern world, and empowering them to be able to design and develop projects in this space is a great way to support them and make real change.

“The challenge has been incorporated into our sessions as the ‘Give’ strand of the five ways to wellbeing. This allows us to discuss the topic in an impactful way where the young people get to action their ideas.  

“The lucky winners from St Joseph’s will now go onto the Emirates Stadium as our representative in the Premier League Inspires Challenge.

“It is amazing that the group will get the opportunity to visit such an amazing venue for their hard work."

Everyone at Swansea City Foundation wishes the young group from St Joseph’s the best of luck in the next stage of the Premier League Inspires Challenge.