Students at St Catherine’s School in Ventnor had quite a treat last week when Pompie football player, John Utaka, made a visit to the school. We were hoping to pop along and get some pics for you, but time didn’t allow, so many thanks to Kim Fry, who works at St Catherine’s, for sending through this report of the afternoon. Ed
Three of St Catherine’s learner showed John around the centre. They joined an occupational therapy session, a class and observed young people learning brick laying in a vocational training session.
As Suzanne Hudson, Director of Development, explained “St Catherine’s successfully applied for a Premier League Creating Chances Award last year. Not only did we receive a fantastic charitable donation of £2000 from the Premier League, but we were one of Portsmouth Football Club’s chosen charities for a player to visit. As you can imagine our children and young people were very excited about meeting a Premier League football player.”
John then kindly posed for photographs by pupils taking GCSE Photography. After signing autographs he talked about growing up in Nigeria and when he first started playing football as a child.
The children and young people then had the opportunity to ask John questions. These ranged from his favourite football team (Pompey of course), who is the last to leave the changing room (Pedro Mendes), his favourite class when he was at school (English literacy), what is his favourite music (he likes everything apart from techno) to if he wasn’t a footballer what would he like to be (an actor).
Grenville Shipley, Principal at St Catherine’s explained “John was absolutely fantastic. He listened to the children, answered all their questions and was very interested in understanding speech, language and communication disabilities and the work of St Catherine’s. We were bowled over by his enthusiasm.”
Background on St Catherine’s
St Catherine’s is a national charity working with children and young people with speech, language and communication impairments. Although one in ten – or 1.2 million – children have a communication disability in the UK, the challenges they face are not widely recognised and St Catherine’s is working to raise awareness across the UK.
