Children from six local primary schools across the Angus area had an amazing morning of football and fun at a Tesco Bank Football Challenge Festivals on Thursday (27th October) at Forfar Farmington FC’s Market Muir ground and at Brechin Leisure Centre on Friday (28th October).

The schools are the latest to have taken part in six weeks of coaching sessions as part of the Scottish FA’s flagship participation programme and came together for a finale to remember as part of a two-day celebration in Forfar and Brechin.

The Tesco Bank Football Challenge is a four-year community programme run in partnership with the Scottish FA. The project introduces football to Primary 2 and Primary 3 children (six to eight years old) across Scotland to help get them engaged in a healthy and active lifestyle.

Now in its second year 800 boys and girls in the area have taken part, this year across eight schools.  Overall, more than 36,000 children across Scotland will have been involved in the Tesco Bank Football Challenge by June 2012.

Helayna Ives, Teacher at Strathmore Primary School said:

“The children had a fantastic day. The programme fits in really well to the Curriculum for Excellence, but more than anything else gets the children active at the same time as having a lot of fun. I cannot recommend the programme highly enough.”

Angus Council’s Scottish FA assistant football development officer Scott Nicoll added:

“At a time when participation is a big topic of discussion we are delighted to have the opportunity to get local kids involved in basic football activity through the Tesco Bank Football Challenge, which fits in entirely with the Scottish FA’s Scotland United 2020 strategy. The target to double the number of participants in football this year to 135,000 will be fantastically supported by programmes like this.”

Adele Mills, Community Investment Manager at Tesco Bank added:

“We are delighted our football programme gives children and teachers in the area the opportunity to get active and learn new skills.  It’s great to see the children in Angus having such a fantastic time.”

In the first year of the programme 479 schools across Scotland’s 32 local authorities participated in the programme, involving 19,061 boys and girls. There were 74 regional festivals and over 1000 teachers and volunteers went through the Scottish FA’s in-service programme.

The primary schools involved in this year’s Tesco Bank Football Challenge in Angus are: Andover Primary School, Maisondieu Primary School, Edzell Primary School, Lethnot Primary School, Tarfside Primary School, Stracathro Primary School Langlands Primary School, Whitehills Primary School, Strathmore Primary School, Tealing Primary School, Inverarity Primary School, Aberlemno Primary School, Muirfield Primary School, Ladyloan Primary School, Timmergreens Primary School, Inverbrothock Primary School, Colliston Primary School.