Schools across our Trust work with the Leeds United Foundation - providing schools access to free, inspiring curriculum-linked resources that bring lessons to life, supporting PSHE, health and wellbeing, PE, English and Maths.
Manston St James Primary Academy were selected to have a very special visitor - Ilia Gruev! The Bulgarian international supported the Year 5 pupils with their football drills, before taking the time to answer questions about his background, his inspirations and his motivations, also offering advice on achieving dreams, and before leaving he also made sure to spend time signing shirts and posing for photos!
Speaking after the session, with a smile beaming across his face, Gruev told LUTV how happy he was with how the afternoon had unfolded.
“It was a great time, and I enjoyed it a lot,” the 24-year-old said. “I know when I was young, what a big thing this would have been for me having a professional footballer come to speak to me and give me attention. I love it because you can see the smiles on the kids’ faces and this is the best feeling. It is very important that we try inspire young people to do what they love and give them contact with athletes who play for a club like Leeds. I think I made their day, but they made my day also! For both, it is good! Some kids were really confident which I liked – I think it is unusual in this age group. There were some really nice questions, and I was proud of them!”
Gruev's visit allowed our pupils to showcase their Oracy skills, with the Premier League Primary Stars Co-ordinator Angus Hall sharing "I was impressed by the quality of the questions and I think when you have that many versatile questions, not only did it give them a good opportunity to speak and interact with Ilia, but the questions they asked meant that his answers were also really valuable and useful for them, away from school as well."
