Shooting Stars
- FA’s Shooting Stars contains two programmes for girls across 1,200 English primary schools, in partnership with Disney, Youth Sport Trust and National Literacy Trust
- Disney storytelling from Incredibles 2, Aladdin and Guardians of the Galaxy inspires sessions for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 girls
- Online training resources will enable every other English primary school to sign-up and deliver Shooting Stars programme
The FA’s Shooting Stars initiative launches today in 1,200 primary schools across England to inspire girls to get active and learn the fundamentals of football. The initiative, inspired by Disney storytelling and produced in collaboration with the Youth Sport Trust and the National Literacy Trust, takes the form of two programmes.
Using storytelling from Disney and Pixar’s 2018 smash-hit animated superhero movie Incredibles 2 and the classic 1992 animated version of Disney’s Aladdin, this part of the programme aims to capture Key Stage 1 girls’ imaginations whilst developing their fundamental movement and speaking and listening skills. Developed in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, these sessions, which aim to be the start of a child’s journey into sport, also allow the girls the opportunity to achieve the learning objectives which are based on the national curriculum for Key Stage 1 English and PE.
The FA’s Shooting Stars initiative is available in over 1,200 primary schools in the first year of the programme but has ambitions to increase the number of schools taking part year-on-year. It is an integral part of the FA’s ‘Gameplan for Growth’ strategy for women’s and girls’ football, where they have the ambition of doubling participation by 2020.
Baroness Sue Campbell, Director of Women’s Football at the FA, said: “By engaging in the magic of Disney storytelling, the Shooting Stars programme allows girls to develop holistically whilst falling in love with sport, motivating them to participate in physical activity and football. These sessions are engaging, help girls develop their confidence and leadership skills and most importantly inspire them to get active at school and at home. Hopefully, this provides a positive starting point to a girls journey in football whereby she can go on to attend a fun football offer with Wildcats or a competitive offer in a mini soccer club.”
During the pilot phase of the programme, research conducted by the FA and the Youth Sport Trust found that the Disney resources were engaging, memorable and familiar to the girls participating whilst practitioners felt that the Disney element added significantly to the resource and supported their delivery.
The research also found that extending the sessions beyond football enabled participants to develop a wider skillset and led to self-reported improvements from girls, coaches and parents, including:
- Physical: Girls get active and enjoy rising to the challenge week on week. Parents and teachers reported sessions are physically tiring
- Social: Opportunity to work with friends as well as girls outside of friendship group, in turn improving communication and teamwork skills
- Technical: Coaches reported improvement week on week of technical skills during the drills
- Psychological: Girls self-reported an improvement in their confidence levels
In the UK, Disney’s long-standing Healthy Living Commitment has seen it use its storytelling to get the whole family more active, and aims to educate and inspire children about healthy eating.