24 Jun Burnley FC in the Community help children to Give Up Loving Pop
The Burnley FC in the Community Primary Stars team successfully delivered an extended version of Healthy Stadia’s Give Up Loving Pop programme to over 20 primary schools across the region, educating children on the importance of toothbrushing, hydration and spotting hidden sugar in popular soft drinks.
Burnley FC in the Community were one of three Club Community Organisation’s across Lancashire to deliver GULP during the spring and summer terms, raising awareness of the health harms of high-sugar drinks and encouraging children, young people and families to cut back on sugary drinks and drink more water.
In Burnley, 2 in 5 (40.1%) children have considerably higher rates of dental decay at the age of 5, compared to the national average of 23.4%. This demonstrates the need for effective community health interventions, to be delivered at the earliest possible opportunity, to encourage healthy habits.
The programme saw almost 800 children from 27 Year 3 classes receive the four-part programme in which they were challenged to cut back on high-sugar soft drinks for 21 days.
Burnley FC in the Community’s sport and education coaches delivered classroom-based games, educational workshops and physical activity sessions to the pupils to deliver important messages around the health harms of high-sugar soft drinks, the importance of hydration for education and sport and how to figure out if a soft drink has a high sugar content.
Mrs Mitchell, Year 3 teacher at Brunshaw Primary School, said:
“The GULP project has been brilliant for my Year 3 pupils. BFCitC Coach, Jack, has really engaged them with their learning and they loved the physical activities. They really took in the messages about too much sugar in drinks and listened to Jack far better than they listen to me their class teacher!
“The link with Burnley also helped with their engagement as most children are big supporters of the club. The children will hopefully carry the important messages they have learnt with them throughout their lives.”
Gwilym Jones, Burnley FC in the Community Primary and Secondary Schools Engagement Manager:
“Health and wellbeing are high on our agenda at Burnley FC in the Community and the Give Up Loving Pop programme has given us the opportunity to get into schools and to talk about issues such as poor oral health, that unfortunately, affect far too many children.
“We’ve really enjoyed delivering GULP over the last 6 weeks giving children the knowledge and skills to identify which of their favourite drinks have the most sugar, and hopefully encouraging them to switch to water and milk.”
To find out more about Burnley FC in the Community and their work please visit: https://www.burnleyfccommunity.org/
