Academy players help inspire local school students

Local school students completed the Premier League Inspires personal development programme at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this week, with men’s and women’s players from our Academy dropping by to join the celebrations.

Premier League Inspires was launched in 2019 to empower students at risk of not meeting their potential through a series of regular face-to-face group sessions, mentoring, workshops and social action projects.

This latest delivery of the programme by Tottenham Hotspur Foundation means it has now benefited over 700 young people across more than 30 schools in Haringey, Enfield and surrounding boroughs, with our staff delivering some 5,000 hours of targeted support.

Students celebrating came from Fern House School, Hornsey School for Girls, Mulberry Academy Woodside, Park View School and St Thomas More Catholic School.

Their visit to the Stadium featured a tour, educational workshops and was wrapped up with a Q&A session involving players Miracle Adewole, Samal Bangura, Grace Breen, Harry Byrne and Ruby Mace.

Ruby said: “This is an engaging setting and we were having great conversations throughout the day. I tried to explain how everyone’s on their own journey as remembering that’s changed my perspective on things. What the Club and the Foundation are doing in the community is really good.”

Samal added: “It was good speaking to the group here today; I enjoyed it a lot. I told them to always believe in themselves, be confident in what they’re doing and how perseverance is key. I hope they go on to do well in whatever they do.”

Raei, 13, from St Thomas More, was among participants: “It was fun to be here and socialise with people from other schools. I knew some of the players through friends, so it was motivating to see them up there. During the programme, through one-to-one sessions, I learnt about my strengths and how to be confident.”

Victoria White, head of Year 9 at Hornsey, said: “Our students who took part came into the programme with lots of different needs and wants. We’ve seen a lot of positive change because they’ve really bought into it, thanks to really engaging sessions and an overall really well-run programme by the Foundation.”

Premier League Inspires is funded by the Premier League and Professional Footballers’ Association through the Premier League Charitable Fund. Today’s event at the Stadium was supported by Spark2Life.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Stadium, the Foundation also kicked off a conversation on sport and business among aspiring leaders in the field as students from AMOS Sport Business School presented solutions to sponsorship and fundraising challenges posed to them earlier in the year.

Foundation staff formed a panel to judge the best presentations, with students then receiving Spurs merch and a stadium tour.

Johnny Owens, Foundation chief fundraising and marketing officer, was among the panellists: “This has been a really invigorating morning exploring important topics in the industry and the quality of presentations left us feeling enthused about the future.

“Supporting students like this forms part of our wider education offering, inspiring and empowering the next generation with learning opportunities.

“We’re looking forward to increasing this work in the year ahead as we aim to develop more impactful and exciting fundraising initiatives for members of the local community and the Spurs fanbase – watch this space!”

AMOS Sport Business School is a higher-learning establishment training tomorrow’s leaders in sport management.

Joanne Macrae, AMOS London director, said: “This partnership with the Foundation and being in this state-of-the-art stadium has brought the students a vision around an extremely important economic model, helping them understand how you can rebuild a stadium and support the local community through it.”

Oublal-Ruiz Noah, among the winners, added: “It was a really good experience to present here and increase our experience in the field.”