Becoming a Preston North End mascot is incentive to work hard

He was the mascot for the clash against Queens Park Rangers at Deepdale – as guest of the Community and Education Trust.

Charlie has special educational needs and was mascot as part of North End’s Level Playing Field matchday, which celebrates access and inclusion for disabled sports fans.

The 13-year-old studies with the Community and Education Trust during the week on the Secondary School Provision programme. The scheme targets Year 10 and 11 students who are disengaged with their studies, or perhaps suffering from low confidence or self-esteem.

The programme provides an alternative, sporting setting where pupils can work towards gaining their qualifications, either under the Progress Eight qualification measures or in alternative format.

The Year 9 student has taken a shine to all things PNE since enrolling on the programme at the start of the academic year, so much so that he returned to Deepdale in a different capacity one weekend last month, for the game between the Lilywhites and Swansea City.

Taking his experience up a notch as mascot, Charlie was lucky enough to walk out with his favourite player Declan Rudd as PNE and QPR took to the pitch.

Charlie said: “I started off not really doing anything football-wise, then started to come to the Community and Education Trust in the week as a student.

“This was my third match, one was almost six years ago for a friendly, and it’s quite cool that my third game is as a mascot.

It’s actually a lot different on a matchday because I didn’t think there was as much going on in the stadium as there actually is.

“When you come in, you actually notice how big it is and it’s a really nice stadium.

“This is going to help out quite a lot knowing that you can be rewarded like this, which means I’m going to try my best to get even more qualifications.”

The Trust launched the Secondary School Provision programme in September 2019 and is now working with students from seven local high schools to aid their learning.

To find out more about the Secondary School Provision programme, please contact Secondary Education Tutor Jake Blackburn on [email protected]