Norwich City FC

RTG initiatives

Kick Into Reading

Norwich Players spreading the word

Footballers, coaches and staff at Norwich City Football Club are embracing the National Year of Reading by encouraging children to pick up a book.

Norfolk County Council has teamed up with the National Literacy Trust and Norwich City Football Club (NCFC) to Kick into Reading.

The project, ran in schools and libraries from Monday 28 th January- Tuesday 5 th February at the same time as National Storytelling Week. The team worked with almost 600 children during this time and had a lot of fun, using the universal appeal of football to encourage young people to visit their local libraries.

Children aged seven to 11 had the opportunity to attend an exciting storytelling session involving NCFC staff and a professional storyteller.

The storyteller, Pat Ryan trained NCFC staff, including reserve first team and academy players, community coaches and study support centre staff, in how to tell stories, share picture books and perform riddles and poems.

Family Day Fun

Following the library sessions, there were two family days at Carrow Road before the home games against Barnsley and Blackpool. Young story fans brought along a family member for more football based reading fun and, thanks to the generosity of the Club, free to see Norwich City in action.

Rosalie Monbiot, Norfolk County Council Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, said: “This scheme will help to engage children in reading and I am thrilled that Norwich City Football Club and their players and staff are involved as they can really help to motivate and encourage children to read.

Reading is a vital skill and one that helps children to develop their imagination and creativity. This project will help reinforce the message that reading is fun and will hopefully inspire many more children to pick up a book.

Jerry Goss, NCFC Community Ambassador and ex-Norwich player, said about the project: “This project is a fantastic way of using the appeal of NCFC to make a real difference in the community. Hearing their football role models telling fun stories will hopefully encourage the next generation to return to their local libraries and discover the joy of reading for themselves”.

Norwich City are in their second year of running Playing With Words.

Non-RTG literacy activity

City operates a book lending system with the help of their local library. The Canaries were one of the 10 RIF projects which were set up in 2002. The centre works with the library to help with book selection for the Year 7 children on the project. Norwich has also been involved with the city museum, who ran a special 'On the Ball City' exhibition in the summer of 2002. The exhibition included a reading corner featuring interviews with players and fans. Goalkeeper Robert Green and author Robert Crowther were both involved with storytelling sessions at the museum.

For 2004 the children participating in the Norwich project were treated with the performance of author Mal Peet ('Keeper', see football books). His performance was "excellent."

Reading Champions: Chris Martin (pdf)
Assistant manager: Lee Clark (pdf)