Young football stars show off their skills

East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure teamed up with the Tesco Bank Football Challenge and the Scottish Football Association to stage the festival of football for 540 Primary 2 pupils.

It was a great warm-up ahead of the looming long summer break, when there will be plenty of opportunities for leisurely days full of footballing opportunities.

And as a bonus it also brought pupils into contact with new friends from other schools in the area.

The youngsters from 11 primary schools in East Renfrewshire including Mearns Primary, Our Lady of the Missions Primary in Giffnock and Thornliebank Primary.

They had already been given six weeks of football coaching as part of the two-year flagship participation programme.

It was a fun way of learning some of the tips that can turn a good footballer into a great one, and its lessons had clearly been taken on board.

This culminated in an all day fiesta of football matches for the pupil at Kingston Playing Fields.

Anthony McReavy, chief executive of ERCL, said: “This football initiative is a fantastic way of getting youngsters active and healthy.

“When you see hundreds of kids running around playing football in the one place and the same time, it makes you realise that all the effort that goes into organising the programme is really very worthwhile.

“The children taking part certainly had a ball, in more ways than one.”

Adele Mills, community investment manager at Tesco Bank, added: “It was great to see so many children having fun while keeping fit and healthy.”