ASANTE HELPS LAUNCH WRITING STARS PROGRAMME

The Premier League Writing Stars poetry competition returns for its second year to inspire children aged five to 11 to get creative and penning their own poem on the theme of diversity.

The campaign, which is open to all primary schools in England and Wales, is supported by stars from the worlds of football, entertainment and literature with last year’s competition encouraging more than 25,000 primary school pupils to write a poem.

Asante listened to the children’s poems that they had been working on during the session before taking part in a Q&A session.

Speaking after the event, she said: “I’ve really enjoyed meeting the children today and talking to them about diversity, not just within football but all walks of life. It’s great to see the Foundation and Premier League using these initiatives to help the younger generation understand that we are all different in our own way, but those differences also bring us together.”

Chelsea Foundation schools education manager, Sam Gaskin-Kemp, said: “We’ve had Anita come in to help us launch this year’s poetry competition as part of the Premier League Writing Stars programme. It was great to hear her talk to the children about her experiences throughout her career and I think the children thoroughly enjoyed having her with us. She also gave some great tips on writing poetry and how important it is to bring your personality through in your writing, so the children can hopefully take that away to help them produce their own poem.”