Manchester United Foundation partner school pupils enjoyed a celebratory event at Old Trafford to recognise their achievements on the Premier League Inspires programme during the 2022/23 academic year.

The Inspires programme – delivered across 18 of our partner high schools – encourages young people to develop their personal, social, employability and life skills.

Following another season of fantastic work, pupils from across years 7-11 were invited to the Theatre of Dreams to celebrate all of their accomplishments on the Inspires programme from the past nine months.

Joining them on the day was Manchester United legend Wes Brown, who helped pupils to create trophies for the Foundation school partnership officer based within their school, using recycled materials.

School partnership officers received their recycled trophies as part of the event, before Wes then presented all pupils with a certificate, signed autographs and posed for selfies.

Creation of the recycled trophies follows the theme of this year’s PL Inspires challenge, which has tasked pupils with tackling environmental sustainability in their local area.

Lauren McGrory, Foundation Employability and Skills Coordinator, said: “It was fantastic to celebrate our young people’s achievements on the PL Inspires programme over the last year with an end-of-season event at Old Trafford.

“Our pupils have accomplished so much through the Inspires programme, from schools participating in the PL Inspires social action challenge and writing stories to educate younger children about climate change, to female participants driving participation in girls’ football.

“Following so many great projects in the environment and sustainability space – such as litter picking, gardening and bee conservation – it was also a fitting end to the year for our young people to present Foundation staff with recycled-material trophies, and doing so alongside a legend like Wes Brown is sure to provide a treasured memory for years to come.”

Evie, a Year 9 student at partner high school, St Cuthbert’s, enjoyed attending the celebration event, after helping to transform a neglected area earlier in the year as part of the PL Inspires social action challenge.

“I think our confidence has grown a lot with the project, we have developed our characteristics and personalities,” said Evie.

“I’ve enjoyed the project, it’s been really good and something different. It teaches you a different perspective and has made me think in a different way about how to do things.

“I liked the activity that we did, making a trophy for Mr Alogba [school partnership officer at St Cuthbert’s], because he’s helped us a lot and we’ve grown a lot.

“My family are United supporters, so to meet Wes – who was really nice and I was able to ask a few questions – was really good.”

During the 2022/23 season, the Foundation has made positive engagements with 385 partner high school pupils through the PL Inspires programme.