Blackburn Rovers star helps Darwen school’s literacy lesson

9:20am Thursday 2nd October 2008

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By Camilla Sutcliffe »

PUPILS were joined in class by a very special visitor yesterday – Blackburn Rovers midfielder Aaron Mokoena.

The player, nicknamed 'The Axe', spoke to every child in the class of seven and eight-year-old pupils at Sudell Primary School, Darwen, following an afternoon of literacy lessons with the club’s educational team.

Under the Blackburn Rovers Community Trust scheme, part of the Premier League’s “Creating Chances” community programme, teachers working with the club used team members as a way to make learning English fun, with parents also taking part.

The children were told to make a story out of the scenario that manager Paul Ince was announcing to the squad that a meteor was about to hit Ewood Park. The players then reveal their superhero alter-egos to save the earth!

The South African international was transformed into “Magnificent Mokoena” by the children, and helped as they finished their stories.

He said: “It’s really great to see young people trying so hard. They really did very well and it makes me feel proud to be involved. I have done a lot of this kind of work in South Africa, and it’s great to be able to do the same in Blackburn.

“For footballers, it’s easy to motivate young people, and it’s great to use that influence for education. I really enjoy it.”

Katie Hargreaves, eight, of Anyon Street, Darwen, got a hug from Mokoena as he talked about her work.

She said: “He asked me if I supported Rovers and I told him I did, and he said my work was really good. I was really happy to meet him.”

Mum Catherine added: “It was a great session and Katie learned a lot.

"She said she didn’t want it to finish. It really makes the things children have learned stick in their minds when the lesson has been made special like this.”

Rovers’ head of strategy and planning Duncan Kinloch said: “The educational team works at schools building up lesson structures with teachers on all sorts of topics, whether that’s literacy, numeracy or something else entirely.”