Wigan Warriors, Happy Smiles Training and Davanti Tyres have created a partnership to deliver sessions to schools to encourage children to discuss feelings and emotions through the power of storybooks.
Warriors first team players, alongside brand partner Davanti Tyres, recently visited a primary school with the Happy Smiles team to deliver one of their sessions. Funded by Davanti, the children read books that addressed things such as mental health issues and terminal illnesses which prompted them to discuss their feelings and emotions.
Alex Winstanley, author of the books, and Inclusion Champion for Happy Smiles training said: “The book we looked at this time was about depression and it looks at the life of someone who is suffering from mental health challenges. Everyone has gone through lots of challenges in the last 18 months, in lots of different ways, this is a way of getting people to talk about their feelings and emotions.”
Liam Hillier, partnerships manager at Davanti Tyres added: “It’s fantastic for us to be able to put money and effort towards these types of foundations. Especially sitting in the classroom with the kids, seeing all the amazing things they are learning and it’s brilliant for us to be able to give children these experiences.”
Wigan Warriors Community Foundations School’s education manager, Guy Wood said: “Happy Smiles are our programme leads, they’re the ones who deliver sessions across the local primary schools and the aim is to encourage children to talk about feelings, emotions, aspirations and how they want to develop in the future.”
If you would like to know more about the Happy Smiles Training programme, please get in touch with the Foundation’s schools education manager, Guy Wood, by email at g.wood@wiganwarriors.com or phone on 01942 762880U
