Year nine students from Manchester City’s Academy proved they’re equally adept off the pitch as on it to finish in third place in Word Mania 2017 and made the generous decision to donate their prize to the Blues’ Foundation.
In a display of true community spirit, the Academy boys opted to hand over their £200 prize to City in the Community, who run a range of education programmes for people across Manchester.
The top three finish meant the Blues achieved the honour of being the most successful football academy involved in Word Mania, and Head of Education, Mark Adams, explained participation has had a positive impact on the young players.
“At Manchester City, we believe education is a key element of a player’s development,” he said.
“It is important for every player to perform well both on and of the pitch and we strive to provide the resources and experiences they need to excel in any environment.
“Since participating in the competition, we have noticed an improvement in the literacy skills of those students using the platform, especially in the areas of spelling and grammar.
“We are extremely proud of all their achievements and we are delighted that we can use our success in the competition to support City in the Community’s education programmes.”
Many Premier League clubs entered the LiteracyPlanet ran competition, with City competing alongside more than 40,000 students.
On the day the boys were tasked with creating as many words as possible from 15 randomly generated letters in three minutes and their success has been gratefully received by Club’s Foundation, who this year is celebrating 30 years of making a difference to the lives of local people.
“City in the Community provides a variety of educational programmes across the city of Manchester and we are delighted to have the support of the players across all our community projects,” said Head of City in the Community, Mike Green.
“This donation from the Manchester City boys’ academy will help us continue growing our range of literacy and reading programmes, which we deliver in local schools across Manchester every day.”
City has been using LiteracyPlanet as a teaching resource since the Premier League invited all its youth development set-ups to participate in Word Mania and the company’s UK Commercial Director, David Weston, believes the Blues should be pleased with their success.
He added: “Word building is a complex literacy skill, and with so many schools and clubs competing Manchester City’s players should certainly be proud of their achievement.”
