Joe Gelhardt and Sam Greenwood paid a special visit to Manston St James C of E Primary Academy recently to take part in a Primary Choices workshop with the Leeds United Foundation focused on anti-bullying.
The duo were on hand to meet pupils from Year 5 and 6 who were having the educational session delivered to them by coaches from the club's official charity, with Anti-Bullying Week occurring from Monday 14th November through to Friday 18th November.
The key aim for the session was to ensure that everyone understood that bullying is not acceptable, and there were a number of different activities for the pupils to engage in, with the young players also getting involved in discussions around different forms of bullying and how you can deal with either being bullied yourself or if you witness someone else being bullied.
Sam Greenwood spoke to LUTV during the visit and said: "As footballers we have seen bullying ourselves, it's something that does go on and I think it's important for us to talk about it and say that if it does happen you can speak to someone about it and ask for help, whether it's a parent or teacher, and for us two to explain that I think it's massive."
Joe Gelhardt added: "I think the kids look up to us as professional footballers, just seeing the excitement when we came in the building, and to see the smiles we can put on their faces, so hopefully they see us as role models and if we act appropriately and talk to them about important topics, they can take a few things from that."
Bobby, a Year 6 pupil from Manston St James, said: "It's been like a dream for them to come today, the fact they've took the time to come in and speak to us about bullying was really powerful.
"They're big role models and if I went out and said anything it wouldn't be heard but for them to come into my school and talk about it, word is going to spread and hopefully bullying will stop."
The Primary Choices programme offers 90-minute workshops that are available to primary schools across Leeds based around encouraging young students to make positive choices before they make the step up to secondary school.
If you would like more information around the Primary Choices programme that is being delivered by coaches from the Leeds United Foundation, please contact [email protected].