22 Oct SCHOOL CHILDREN SLEEP ROUGH TO HELP HOMELESSNESS CHARITIES

Huddersfield Town Foundation launches ‘Little Big Sleep Out’ with 50 Primary School children from their Premier League Primary Stars programme. 

Following the success of the annual ‘Big Sleep Out’, the John Smith’s Stadium welcomed over 50 Primary School Children in the Huddersfield Town Foundation’s first ever ‘Little Big Sleep Out’.

The Huddersfield Town Foundation invited three of their Premier League Primary Stars schools; Oak C of E Primary, Hepworth Junior and Infants and Crow Lane Primary School, to sleep over at the John Smith’s Stadium on Friday 18 October 2019.

The ‘Little Big Sleep Out’ event aimed to educate and raise awareness on the issue of Homelessness where the year six pupils had first-hand experience of homelessness as they bed down for the night in the grounds of the Stadium.

The Huddersfield Town Foundation has delivered weekly Premier League Primary Stars social action planned lessons to each of the participating Primary Schools on the topic of homelessness. During these lessons the children learnt about the seriousness of homelessness, how it can affect anyone and the main causes that may lead to someone becoming homeless.

After the pupils built a foundation of knowledge surrounding this topic, lessons then moved onto how they can help people that find themselves on the streets or without a permanent address.

As part of the project the children who participated in the ‘Little Big Sleep Out’ were asked to create and donate a food parcel or a homeless survival kit up to the value of £5.

The Premier League Primary Stars lessons provided an environment for the children to discuss essential items that would be most beneficial when homeless. This knowledge was essential to assist the children in creating their food parcels and survival kits which will be donated to two local foodbank organisations – The Welcome Centre and Batley Foodbank.

During the ‘Little Big Sleep Out’ the Huddersfield Town Foundation staff facilitated lots of fun activities and games where children were encouraged to engage with pupils from other schools, backgrounds and with different beliefs to themselves.

The Primary School children also shared their knowledge and understanding around the issues of homelessness and how they and their school plan to embed their support of tackling homelessness into the future.

The ‘Little Big Sleep Out’ was supported by many local businesses, such as, Approved Foods, Huddersfield Food Service, GW Price, Jeanette Cartwright, Hirsche Foundation, Hirsche Automotive, Big Dog Workwear and BM Packaging Ltd.

• Approved Foods supplied hot chocolate, coffee, fruit juice, biscuits, cereal bars and refreshments for the children throughout the event. The company has also very generously agreed to double the amount of food parcels items donated at the ‘Little Big Sleep Out’ to further benefit our foodbank beneficiaries.
• Huddersfield Food Service provided hot food and disposables to keep the children warn during the cold night.
• GW Price provided fruit for the children’s breakfast in the morning.
• Jeanette Cartwright baked shortbread biscuits to provide all the children with a delicious snack throughout the evening.
• The Hirsche Foundation, Hirsche Automotive and Big Dog Workwear helped the Huddersfield Town Foundation set up the event and provided all the children with ‘Little Big Sleep Out’ wristbands.
• BM Packaging Ltd supplied all the cardboard for the children to make their beds of the evening.

The Huddersfield Town Foundation would like to say a special thanks to all supporters for their generosity in helping to facilitate the success of this event!

Mr Mark Crouch, Hepworth Junior and Infants Headteacher, commented:

“It’s really important, especially as we’re in the Holme Valley, which is quite a nice area, you don’t see a lot of homelessness.

“I think it’s really important that we do show the children that there’s other aspects to life and how important it is to support charities.

“As teachers were educating the children but always setting them up for life as well, I think it’s life skills their learning here.

“The kids at school love football and we’re very much a Huddersfield Town School, so the kids support Huddersfield Town, they love the coaches that come in every week and we’ve got a really good relationship with them. It’s really positive.

“This week we were doing homeless workshops and that was delivered by the Huddersfield Town staff, so the kids are immediately switched on.

“It’s good to hear from different people.”

Siobhan Atkinson, Huddersfield Town Foundation CEO, added:

“The challenge for us was to be part of a National programme like Premier League Primary Stars but to put our own stamp on it, to have our own little bit of creativity.

“That was the challenge I laid down to the staff, lets do something different.

“It feels like we can tell a story all year round now and actually the issue of homelessness, we’re educating people right from Primary Stars, four and five years of age right up to people that come to do our Big Sleep Out.

If you would like some more information on the Huddersfield Town Foundation’s Premier League Primary Stars programme, please contact Ruby Marlow on ruby.marlow@htafcfoundation.com.