Arsenal Double Club

Bacary Sagna... Defender takes special French lesson 'a la Arsenal'

Defender visits Arsenal French Double Club

Arsenal right-back Bacary Sagna visited pupils studying French through the after-school Arsenal Double Club on Wednesday, October 1, fresh from a Champions League victory against FC Porto at Emirates Stadium the night before. The visit forms part of the Premier League’s Places for Players initiative, which aims to highlight the continued and increasing commitment the 20 Barclays Premier League clubs have to their local communities.

The year seven pupils, who undertake the award-winning scheme in their own time after school, welcomed the French international into their classroom and spoke in Sagna’s native tongue when asked questions by the Gunners’ defender. The youngsters then took to the pitch for some football training, using French vocabulary, with an Arsenal coach currently on Arsenal’s Gap Year scheme.

“It’s great to be here today," said Bacary. "Learning languages at a young age is so important.  It’s great fun to help these youngsters learn French.  Today I help them.  Tomorrow they help me.  I hope they’ve enjoyed the session today – I did!”

The Arsenal Double Club is an innovative programme which was founded in 1998 – a ‘Double’ winning season for the Gunners – it uses Arsenal resources, interactive DVDs with first team players and football-based classroom exercises to make learning fun and relevant to young people’s interests. It is uniquely designed, co-ordinated and devised by Arsenal’s 24 year-old Arsenal in the Community department.  The 45-minute classroom session is followed by a 45-minute football coaching session – mirroring the two halves of ‘the beautiful game’.

The French Double Club was introduced in 2007 and to date has been undertaken in 17 schools in London and the home counties with 275 pupils successfully completing the module.  Pupils are invited to Emirates Stadium for a tour upon completion of the six to eight week week module and other incentives are offered throughout the scheme. 

The initiative has been recognised by some high profile figures and institutions, during a visit to the Gunners’ north London home for an historic Anglo-French Summit, the work of the French Arsenal Double Club was showcased for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.  It has also been hailed by the European Commissioner for Multi-Lingualism, Leonard Orban and in July 2008, CILT, the National Centre for Languages, the Government’s recognised centre of expertise on languages awarded the Arsenal Double Club The European Award for Languages.

Due to the success of the programme, the Department for Children, Schools and Families has agreed to fund a two year secondment to Arsenal Double Club to develop the modern foreign language module and to roll out the scheme across other Premier League Clubs, as well as other football and sporting clubs nationwide.  Julie Stoker, a languages teacher who has also previously worked in football TV production will work closely with Arsenal’s education partners, Cambridge Education@Islington to undertake the work.

Julie said: “With modern foreign language teaching becoming compulsory for Primary schoolchildren in 2010, Arsenal, working in partnership with the Government, the local authority and other credible partners has shown real commitment to developing this area of their work in education.  My work over the next two years will ensure the scheme is rolled out nationwide and accessible to those schools and organisations who want to try a different approach to French, Spanish and German learning. The Arsenal Double Club will also continue to aim to raise the profile and attraction of languages in secondary schools - motivating and encouraging those on the programme to take a language at GCSE.” 

There are a wide variety of modules included in the Arsenal Double Club scheme including numeracy, literacy, science, geography, business studies, French, German and Spanish.  To date, Arsenal’s Double Club has been successfully completed by over 1600 pupils in over 80 schools.

[Thursday, October 02, 2008]

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