It was a day of successful leaders at Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Compton Park training ground this week as Nuno Espirito Santo received the Barclays Manager of the Month award from someone who has shown leadership in school.
Hannah Parker, a Year 7 student at the local Moseley Park School, earned the chance to hand the award over to Nuno after she changed her behaviour at Lanesfield Primary School in the previous academic year.
Hannah had had issues at Lanesfield.
"I didn't like school because people had been mean to me and it made me misbehave," she says.
"My behaviour was affecting my school work because I was back-chatting to the teachers, making silly noises and distracting people and then I would get sent out."
Change of attitude
But with the intervention of Wolverhampton Wanderers Foundation and Premier League Primary Stars her attitude changed.
From attending an initiative run by Wolves, Hannah took on roles of responsibility and became a role model during her last year at primary.
She impressed her teachers to the extent that she was made prefect.
"She's really matured because she developed these skills through the work with Wolves and the levels that she's achieving for her English and her maths have gone through the roof," says Claire Nokes, a teacher at Lanesfield.
Gifts in return
As well as presenting the award to Nuno at the club’s Compton Park training ground, Hannah received in return a signed ball from the Wolves head coach, as well as a signed pair of boots from captain Conor Coady.
"The head of my Year 7 is going to be really jealous because he’s a massive fan of Wolves," Hannah says. "He’ll probably put me in detention till I give him the boots or show him them."