Aston Villa Football Club offer a community programme called Villa Vitality. This scheme is aimed at schoolchildren and involves members of the villa vitality team providing workshops for school children in order to raise their awareness of healthy lifestyles. The programme is split in to two days. Day one involves the vitality team visiting schools and talking to children about the importance of healthy lifestyles and what makes a balanced diet. Day one also involves a physical activity aspect where children get to participate in football and tennis. Day 2 involves school children visiting Villa park and the nearby academy training faclity. On day 2 the children are taken for a tour of the ground, they get to use a professional standard gym, they get to cook their own healthy meal and they also get to make a CD were they can sing about healthy lifestyles.

Villa vitality DAY ONE – On Thursday 21 st May 2015 our year 5 children had a visit from the villa vitality team and took part in day one of the programme. The children were introduced to a qualified tennis coach and a nutritionist who were both responsible for the delivery of the programme on the day. Class 5C took part in the physical activity in the morning, whilst 5M were busy in the classroom working with the nutritionist, discussing healthy eating and balanced diets. The children then swapped over in the afternoon. The majority of children enjoyed the extra opportunity to play football and tennis. The children also learned lots of interesting diet facts, some of which made them have a serious think about what they eat themselves, for example the children were told that every can of coke they consume contains 7/8 teaspoons of sugar. The children are now looking forward to day 2 of the programme.

LTA affilliated tennis coach (Dan) part of the villa vitality team, taught our year 5 children some fundamental tennis skills; looking closely at racquet control.

Malachi showing good control and ‘soft’ hands to catch the tennis ball on his racquet. Aisha showing some great skill and control, performing ‘keepy-ups’ with her tennis racquet, through her legs!

The children also practised returning a ball over a net.

They then took part in a 4-team football tournament …..

The children were also taught about healthy, balanced diets in the classroom …. They were asked to create their own healthy menu – ‘come dine with me’ style…

And were warned about the hidden sugars within their soft drinks.