Elland Road welcomes local author

Elland Road welcomes local author

Children's author Tom Palmer links up with Leeds United Foundation.

Tom Palmer is a children's author and a massive Leeds United supporter who has been working with the Leeds United Foundation to improve engagement levels between young students and literacy.

The local author has written a number of books for young children including a series of novels based around the topic of football, including; Football Academy, Foul Play and The Squad.

Together with the club's official charity a special workshop was hosted at Elland Road on a matchday earlier in the 2018/19 season with a group of children from Kirkstall St Stephens Primary School.

The exclusive trip was part of a 10-week Reading Stars programme, which forms part of the Premier League Primary Stars initiative, delivered by the Leeds United Foundation across various schools in Leeds. The programme is a literacy intervention scheme designed to stimulate engagement in children from 9 to 13 years who love football but lack motivation at school, especially with reading.

As part of the matchday workshop the pupils had an interactive session with Tom and coaches from the Foundation to share match reporting tips, before being taken over to the stadium where they watched the match against Wigan Athletic in the Family Stand. The children were tasked with making notes throughout the game and then writing their own report following the fixture – with Tom there throughout to support and answer any questions.

During the afternoon they were also treated to a visit pitchside where they had photos taken by the club's official photographer.

Tom spoke to LUTV during the day and said: "I've been working with the Leeds United Foundation and a local school trying to promote reading with pleasure using the children's love of football to encourage them to enjoy reading through newspapers, magazines, match programmes and books.

"When I was younger I didn't like reading and I got into reading through my love of Leeds United and that was one of the messages I was trying to pass on to them. We’ve had such a great time at Elland Road today and the feedback from the children and teacher’s has been brilliant.”

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