Brentford FC Head Coach Thomas Frank crowned Tom Mullins, of St James Catholic Primary School, the winner of Brentford FC Community Sports Trust's journalism competition last week. The year six pupil took part in the Trust’s journalism project, which sees local primary school pupils transform themselves into journalists and write a match report from a Brentford game. Run in partnership with the Fearless Foundation, the project was set up in memory of the Daily Star’s chief football reporter Danny Fullbrook who died of cancer aged just 40 in 2012.

In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the pupils took part in the project online to unlock their creative potential. Thomas Frank joined Sports Editor of Daily Star Howard Wheatcroft, members of Danny Fullbrook’s family and founder of the Fearless Foundation Mark Dickinson in judging the match report entries.

After taking part in the judging process, Thomas Frank said: “It was a pleasure to be asked to judge this competition and I was delighted to take part. I have been very proud of the way our players have helped our Community Sports Trust over the past few months. They do lots of great work and it was great to be able to help, read the work of those that took part in the Trust’s journalism project and help select the eventual winner.

“I know home-schooling can be incredibly challenging and the work the Trust does with projects like these help engage with children who would perhaps not normally be interested in English or literacy. Football can help in the community and help individuals and that is great to see. And there can be no better way to improve your writing skills by covering Brentford’s fantastic victory over Swansea last year!”

Along with Tom Mullins, the judges also awarded the top five places. Pupils were drawn from 15 local primary schools along with individual entries online from young Bees fans. The rest of the top five was:

2. Daniel Brooks

3. Leo Arya

4. Katie Toppin

5. Natlia Kukla

Chris Barrett, Education Manager of Brentford FC Community Sports Trust, believes this project serves an important educational tool for primary school pupils. He said: “Our work with the Fearless Foundation gives us the opportunity to work with young writers of all abilities and offer them a glimpse of the skills required to become a top sports journalist. Hopefully this will help inspire some of them to join the writing profession in the future.”

For more information about the Trust's education projects, please email us [email protected].