Over 100 Children from local primary schools across the Falkirk area had an amazing morning of football and fun at a Tesco Bank Football Challenge Festival on Friday 28th October on the hallowed pitch at Ochilview with Stenhousemuir star Martin Corrigan.
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 are now coming together for a finale to remember.
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 over 700 boys and girls in the area are taking part, this year across 11 schools. Overall, more than 36,000 children across Scotland will have been involved in the Tesco Bank Football Challenge by June 2012.
Miss Elaine Swan of Nethermains 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."
Stenhousemuir star Martin Corrigan said:
"It was brilliant to see the children have so much fun at the Tesco Bank Football Challenge. I think it is superb programme and I’m really pleased to support it.
Martyn Buckie, community coach:
"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 Falkirk area the opportunity to get active and learn new skills. It’s great to see the children 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.
Nethermains Primary School, Dunipace Primary School and Bankier Primary School attended the festival.