Kalvin Phillips has helped to raise awareness around Children’s Mental Health Week after he joined an online session with the Leeds United Foundation and young students from Cookridge Holy Trinity Primary School.

The Leeds United midfielder has shown his support for the campaign previously and wanted to take the time to chat openly with more children again this year, around the ever-important topic of mental health and wellbeing.

Children’s Mental Health Week has been running since 2015 and the campaign was specifically launched to help shine a spotlight on the importance of children and young people’s mental health. The theme for 2022 has been centred around Growing Together, with the Leeds United Foundation staff delivering a tailored workshop that will hopefully help to encourage their pupils to consider how they have grown, how they can continue to grow, and how they can help others to grow.

During the call with the England international, which was set up through the Premier League Primary Stars team, students were able to engage personally with Kalvin, as they asked him a series of questions around how he takes care of his mental wellbeing. Some of the questions included how a structured daily routine and exercise can help other areas in his life, what he likes to do outside of football to relax, how he deals with any negativity whether it’s on the TV, in newspapers or across social media channels, and who/what he is grateful for in life that have helped him become the person he is today.

The 26-year-old was greeted by a sea of Leeds United and England shirts on the Zoom call, with the excited Year 6 class even reciting Marching On Together for one of their favourite players before the session was over.

One of the students who took part in the session with the club’s official charity spoke to LUTV during the day, and he said: “Today was really important because children idolise Kalvin Phillips loads and they love him as a player. With him talking about the topic really well, the children will know what to do if they have problems, like speak out to family and friends maybe.”

Matt Herschell-Smith, who is the Primary Stars Lead at the Leeds United Foundation, added: “Today we were at Holy Trinity Catholic School in Cookridge as part of the Primary Stars project and we were able to deliver a special workshop based around children’s mental health.

“We mainly discussed how important it is for you to talk to others when you have any issues or problems and it was amazing to get Kalvin involved, who the children all look up to. I know they’ll take on board some of the great things he had to say about how he’s grown as a person and how he copes and deals with difficult situations.”

The Leeds United Foundation work in schools throughout Leeds, supporting both teachers and students to ensure young people remain engaged with their education through the power of sport. Coaches from the Foundation continue to deliver sessions and workshops around various important subjects, such as mental health, with the hopes of giving youngsters the right tools and information that will help to empower them and help them make the right decisions.

For more information on the various education programmes being delivered by the Leeds United Foundation, please contact [email protected].

For more information around Children’s Mental Health Week, please click here.