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Scottish FA launches new digital teaching resource which places football on the curriculum within classrooms and living rooms across the nation
The Scottish FA has launched a new initiative which will enable thousands of children across the country to add Scotland’s UEFA EURO 2020 adventure to their studies. Learning Through Football, a classroom-based teaching resource, has been designed to use the power of football to improve literacy and numeracy.
Learning Through Football has been developed as one of the legacy projects which have been made possible by Glasgow’s joint hosting of UEFA EURO 2020 as part of the competition’s 60th anniversary celebrations.
Building on the excitement of the Scotland Men’s National Team’s qualification for the first major tournament in 22 years, the programme has been designed in line with the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) and includes more than 40 activities centred around the UEFA European Championship, which teachers and parents can download for free.
Pupils taking part will get an exclusive insight into the world of the Scotland National Team and the broader football industry, tailored to literacy and numeracy outcomes: from analysing the stats behind the successes of captain Andy Robertson and goalkeeping hero David Marshall to trying-out the art of commentary made famous by BBC Scotland’s Liam McLeod and Sky Sports’ Ian Crocker.
Miller Primary School in Glasgow is one of the schools already using the tool in class, with pupils trying a range of new activities from designing football strips to making their own national anthem for the tournament. Two pupils have also re-enacted the Head Coach’s post-match interview after Scotland qualified in a dramatic penalty shootout against Serbia in Belgrade.
Jacqueline Church, Principal Teacher at Miller Primary School: “We’ve thoroughly enjoyed bringing the Learning Through Football tool into the classroom. Everyone loves their football at Miller Primary and the activities are really flexible and allow the children to explore their own interests in the sports industry. Not only are the assignments fun and interesting, but the children are able apply a range of skills to meaningful life contexts, boosting their confidence and leadership skills.
“By exploring jobs within the industry, they are also recognising the teamwork, communication and perseverance skills we need to work in any job, which sets them in good stead for the future.”
This new digital format of the inter-disciplinary learning tool allows teachers to see the cross-curricular links between project ideas, showing the wealth of learning areas that football can be part of. Alongside learning topics, there are a number of projects and assignments aligned to Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) learning outcomes in literacy, expressive arts, health and wellbeing, maths and numeracy, science, social studies and technologies.
Teachers and schools are also encouraged to share their work on social media using #LearningThroughFootball, #EURO2020 and tagging @GlasgowEURO2020. For more information and to download the resources please visit euro2020.scottishfa.co.uk/learning-through-football.