To celebrate Arsenal in the Community's 25th anniversary this week, Manuel Almunia met pupils learning Spanish through the Club's education initiative, the Arsenal Double Club, at St Mary Magdalene, Islington on Wednesday, February 24.
Since Arsenal in the Community's formation a quarter-century ago, the Club has invested 5.5 million hours in one million individuals across a wide variety of sporting, charitable, educational and social inclusion projects in London and overseas.
The pupils who learn Spanish using Arsenal and football based resources, welcomed the goalkeeper into their classroom to practice their language and soccer skills. The youngsters participated in a football training session using Spanish vocabulary, with an Arsenal in the Community Coach alongside Manuel Almunia.
Speaking ahead of the event Manuel said: "It's great to see the work of Arsenal in the Community in action. I've participated in quite a few education and sporting schemes and the work is just fantastic. I enjoy meeting participants on the schemes - it helps put the Arsenal connection into context for them.
This week gives players another chance to see the work that takes place in the community and meet participants who are proudly associated with the Club. It's great to meet these children today and help them with their lesson. They are so young that they have a lot of time to learn the language which is key. I wish I had been involved in a scheme like this at primary school to help me with my English. Learning a language at such a young age is very valuable."
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 25 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 Spanish Double Club was introduced in 2007 and to date has been undertaken in 46 secondary schools in London and the home counties with over 4000 pupils successfully completing the senior school modules. As with all Double Club schemes, pupils are invited to Emirates Stadium for a tour upon completion of the six to eight week modules and other incentives are offered throughout the scheme. The scheme was piloted in three primary schools in the Club's local area before it was launched, rolled out and made available to any school wishing to use the resources - in time for 2010, the year when modern foreign language learning becomes compulsory in primary schools.
Due to the success of the programme, the Department for Children, Schools and Families has funded 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 television production works 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."
This special Arsenal in the Community 25th anniversary event also formed part of the Premier League initiative Places for Players (part of the Creating Chances scheme) which uses the power of football to engage a cross section of community in a wide variety of projects.
Take a look at our exclusive pictures from Wednesday's event:
