Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and England Cricket World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan surprised schoolchildren in Liverpool to launch a new partnership between the Premier League and the ECB which encourages school children to celebrate diversity.
The sporting organisations, united by a shared goal to encourage inclusion and inspire people to respect and value individual differences, have come together to create "Roar! for Diversity" - a curriculum-linked PSHE resource and competition for 7-11-year olds.
The duo joined Premier League match official Sian Massey-Ellis and England cricketer Sophia Dunkley at Lawrence Community Primary School in Wavertree to take part in a classroom discussion about the importance of diversity in sport.
"The Premier League is for everyone"
They also answered questions from class 5M and joined the children in groups to complete worksheet exercises.
"The most successful teams bring together players with individual skills and qualities to be able to achieve success as a group," said Oxlade-Chamberlain.
"The Liverpool dressing room is home to players from more than 20 countries. Everyone brings something different to the atmosphere on and off the pitch!
"The Premier League is for everyone. Using sport to inspire a generation of young fans to celebrate diversity is something I'm proud to be supporting."
The Key Stage 2 resource will enable teachers to discuss with their class how diversity within a team helps to make it stronger.
Pupils can then create an advert celebrating diversity which can be entered into a competition and can win match tickets or a school visit from the Premier League or Cricket World Cup trophies.
The resource is available to download for free from the Premier League Primary Stars and ECB's schools' partner, Chance to Shine.
Open discussion
"The Roar! for Diversity resource will enable primary school children to openly discuss and celebrate the qualities that make them different to their classmates; using the appeal of both football and cricket to encourage these conversations both in the classroom and away from it," said Premier League Executive Director Bill Bush.
"This launch follows on from our successful primary school poetry competition on diversity last year and supports the wider work that the Premier League and our clubs are carrying out around anti-discrimination.
"We hope that the 16,000+ schools engaged with our free Premier League Primary Stars education programme will find these downloadable curriculum-linked resources helpful in prompting meaningful discussion."
The Roar! For Diversity pack includes lesson plans and video resources featuring contributions from Massey-Ellis, Dunkley and England cricketer Adil Rashid.
"The Premier League and Chance to Shine have had some incredible success in engaging primary schools and we are teaming up to support teachers and children to have these vital conversations and help foster an inclusive culture in their classrooms and communities," said ECB chief operating officer David Mahoney.
