Bomber Kids now open for bookings following successful pilot year

Victoria’s Essendon Football Club is now taking bookings for its Early Learning program Bomber Kids following a successful pilot last year.

In 2024, Essendon staff ventured the Hume, Merri-Bek, Moonee Valley and Macedon Rangers councils, ranging as far as Airport West to Macedon, road testing curriculum and surveying teachers at 15 different Early Learning Centres, kindergartens and pre-schools, delivering the program to over 500 children.

The Bomber Kids program aims to develop students’ key motor skills such as running, jumping, kicking, and handballing, all while learning the importance of teamwork, cooperation, and communication. 

Using the medium of football, activities are specifically designed to promote school readiness with a focus on active listening, turn-taking, and working as part of a team.

Explorers Early Learning Essendon was one of the services involved in the pilot, something that spokesperson Sarah Cook described as an “engaging and informative incursion that got our children working in collaboration, communicating and turn taking.”

More than simply a football clinic, the program has strong pedagogical alignment to key education frameworks and includes a comprehensive suite of pre and post visit resources, including a series of edu-tainment videos featuring AFLW ambassador Maddy Prespakis.

“My interest in AFL started when I was 4 years old, so I know how beneficial these programs are to kids,” Ms Prespakis said.

“I’m really excited to be able to share my experience and learnings with children.”

Bombers Kids will be delivered within the Club’s zone, which includes some of Melbourne’s most culturally diverse suburbs, and will serve as an introduction to Australian Rules Football for some young people.

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