Children from Sussex schools take part in football-themed tournament

Almost 90 students aged between nine and 11 took part in several educational challenges at the Amex Stadium.

The winners of this year’s Cross-Curriculum Albion Cup were Summerlea Community Primary School in Rustington.

The event was hosted by BHAFC Foundation, the official charity of the Albion, along with American Express.

Rob Josephs, employability and education manager at BHAFC Foundation, said: “Challenges are designed to engage students in core curriculum areas and introduce them to key life skills in an exciting way.

Pupils from Stanford Junior School pupils from Brighton (Image: Supplied)

“The tasks are against the clock and fast paced. Having a fun competitive element across schools motivates students to contribute, however all students are recognised for their enthusiasm and input.”

The activities included a data challenge where children used players’ dates of birth to calculate and list players from oldest to youngest.

They also took part in a scrabble challenge where they had to make as many words as possible from the name of men’s first team midfielder Facundo Buonanotte.

There was an A to Z challenge where they had to list a football-related word for every letter of the alphabet and a STEM challenge where teams were shown how to code robots and complete an obstacle course in the fasted time possible.

Last year’s winner Ocklynge Junior School, Eastbourne were runners up, and Swiss Gardens Primary School in Shoreham came in third place.

The schools that took part were City Academy Whitehawk, Middle Street Primary School and Stanford Junior School all in Brighton, along with South Malling CE Primary School, Nutley CE Primary School, Breakwater Academy, Cradle Hill Community Primary School, Ocklynge Junior School, Parkland Junior School and Swiss Gardens Primary School.

Beverly Sawyers, senior vice president at American Express, said: “We’ve seen football is an extremely powerful tool to engage young people, not only in key curriculum areas, but to learn valuable employability skills. Sessions like today are part of our wider commitment to support younger generations within our local communities to feel more positively about their future prospects.”