Beckham scores: Why the footballer's academy is a winner

A day at the David Beckham Academy teaches children much more than just football, says Peter Stanford

Published: 15 March 2007

Beckham scores: Why the footballer's academy is a winner

Children compete in a mini-World Cup at the David Beckham Academy

Most of the 100 or so eight- to 15-year-olds at the David Beckham Academy say that they came because they love football. Some, mainly girls, admit that, several hours into their one-day school visit, they love football a bit more than when they arrived first thing that morning.

But there are, several point out, other attractions. One earnest 10-year-old boy says that he has always wanted to be a journalist, so was just as keen on the Academy's morning classroom activity that centres on making your own sports newspaper. And red-haired Rebecca, 10, from St Peter and St Paul Catholic Primary in Orpington, had wanted to come, she says simply, to overcome her fear of flying balls.

The David Beckham Academy, next to the empty Millennium Dome on the Greenwich peninsula in south-east London, was launched in November 2005 by the then England football captain. It is the largest sports facility of its kind in Europe - two full-size indoor soccer pitches, plus a classroom, administrative and catering block. The children I meet are part of the academy's flagship school- visits programme, which provides free one- to three- day courses for a range of youngsters, with a special emphasis on those from deprived backgrounds. Some of the visitors are visibly bowled over by the sheer size and scale of the giant building. Looking from the near touchline of one of the pitches to the far side of the other, under the vast double-span roof, is a little like gazing across the whole of a Victorian railway terminus from platform one to platform 20. Both have the effect of making you feel remarkably small.

Other children, though, keep looking expectantly to the doors into the office block. "They think they're going to see Beckham," a teacher explains. "We've told them he's in Madrid, but they don't listen."

In one sense, the pupils know better. For Beckham does indeed drop in on the academy unannounced as often as his schedule permits - which was, staff say, around 15 times in 2006. His family is in evidence, too. "Oliver was honoured to have the privilege of meeting David's mum," write Mark and Cathy Jenkins in one of many letters pinned to the noticeboard, thanking staff after a visit by their autistic son.

The Real Madrid soon-to-be Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder is, however, guaranteed to be at his academy next Monday. He is launching stage two of its programme - the School Zone, a free, online education resource for teachers and students that builds on what is being delivered in Greenwich. The web version will make it available to many more than the 10,000 children who can be accommodated on school visits each year.

Beckham is, it would be fair to say, famous for his skill with a football rather than his intellect. In September of last year, for instance, he made headlines when he told a Sunday newspaper that his six-year-old son's maths homework left him baffled. So, there is a strong temptation to write off the academy that carries his name as simply another footballing hothouse, designed to nurture the next generation of England stars, well away from the usual classroom distractions of numeracy and literacy, which will, if all goes to plan, become irrelevant when the lucky few are earning five-figure weekly salaries playing in the Premier League.

But that would be to do Beckham and his academy a disservice. "When David first approached me about this dream," says Ted Dale, once of Chelsea, now head of the coaching staff in Greenwich, "what he wanted was somewhere children could come in numbers and have a unique experience."

It was a vision, Dale says, inspired by Beckham's own wish to "put something back" after he had first got his chance as a boy at a Bobby Charlton Soccer School. Beckham's ambition, though, was broader than replicating what he had experienced. So the academy's programme, run by a former teacher, Tessa Payne, is about much more than encouraging budding footballers. Indeed, it stipulates that school groups that come must be made up of all abilities and of equal numbers of boys and girls. What it hopes to do with them is to exploit that widespread interest in football, and in Beckham in particular, to promote learning - specifically, aspects of the national curriculum that include science, nutrition, citizenship and leadership. This is not just a fun day out.

A typical school visit begins with the children being picked up - most come from within the M25 - by one of the academy's fleet of minibuses, provided by the sponsors Volkswagen. Free transport is part of a package that means a day at the academy won't dent already stretched school budgets one bit. They are dropped off at around 9.45am and meet their coach of the day.

After a warm-up out on the pitches, the children will go into whichever one of the six "challenges" that they have chosen in advance to take on. Four are taking place in conventional classroom settings. In one room, a group of mainly boys are trying to be soccer managers. The various tasks set for them include assembling a notional team of players and calculating how much they would cost to buy and then pay. So, numeracy is the order of the day.

Next door it is literacy for those taking on the sports-journalism challenge. Meanwhile, out on the pitches, with the gentle encouragement of one of the academy's team of coaches, two young boys from Castlecombe Primary, in Mottingham, are examining a full-size skeleton to locate the clavicle, part of the physiotherapy challenge.

They are all encouraged in their work by being awarded tokens, but - again distancing itself from the traditional sports model - the academy is wary of promoting too much competition. Tokens are handed out for enthusiasm, good behaviour and general willingness to learn rather than straight ability.

The same principle applies after lunch. All schools attending compete in a mini World Cup tournament. The goalkeeper who picks the ball out of the back of the net with good grace is as likely to get a token as the would-be Wayne Rooney who put it there.

"We are trying to reward positive attitude and effort," explains Tessa Payne, "and encourage team work and team spirit." But children are, she accepts, naturally competitive, so each school's tally of tokens is regularly added up as the day progresses. But as they take their leave at 3.30pm, all the new graduates get a prize and a certificate.

It is a good example of the delicate balancing act that lies behind the academy's programme. At its simplest, this is a place built on the reputation of a hugely successful footballer that is telling its students that being able to add up and spell is just as important as being able to kick a ball.

The balance thing is there, too, in the academy's handling of the whole question of "brand Beckham". Its founder is, for better or worse, a global marketing icon. But his face does not appear on the academy's logo, while a display of his shirts and boots from famous matches is more than outnumbered by similar memorabilia from other great players, past and present.

The only time that the words "self-promotion" cross my mind is when I am watching the trainee sports journalists. The main part of their challenge is to create a front page celebrating Beckham's goal, in stoppage time, against Greece in 2001, which saw England in the World Cup finals. It was, arguably, his finest moment in an England shirt, but in almost 100 appearances, there were some less happy but potentially highly educative episodes. The students might, for example, learn some important lessons from re-examining his sending off for a petulant foul during the 1998 World Cup...

But that is, perhaps, to be too hard on Beckham when what he really deserves is praise for digging into his admittedly deep pockets to set up and maintain this Rolls-Royce project, alongside other key backers such as AEG, the sports and leisure group that owns the Dome. There was an assessment, last summer, of the academy by the Department for Education and Skills. Some 94 per cent of those who had been on a school visit thought that it was excellent or good; 72 per cent wanted to do more sport as a result of being there; while 64 per cent were now considering a career in sport and 56 per cent had decided that they must now eat more healthy food.

It is such positive feedback that has persuaded the educational team, working with consultants and the DfES, to launch the School Zone website. The £500,000 cost was met by Beckham, the academy and Volkswagen. The same mix of sport and classroom, fun and learning, is present.

Out on the pitch, the mini-World Cup is getting under way. All the schools at the academy today have come from Bromley, in Kent. While the children run around after the ball, their teachers unanimously pronounce their visit a success. "I'd like to bottle a bit of this and take it back home with me," says one. As an endorsement for the new website, it could hardly have been bettered if Beckham had been paying her.

www.thedavidbeckhamacademy.com