They Did You Can

​Using sporting heroes to demonstrate how everyone can ‘achieve whatever they want in life’ might seem a little counter intuitive at first; mathematics and gender automatically preclude most youngsters from being able confidently to anticipate a place in a Premiership football club at some point, for example, and that’s without bringing ‘the ability to kick a ball’ into the equation. Nonetheless, as the stories of success against the odds pile up right from the start of this inspirational book, Michael Finnigan’s claim that overcoming the fear of failure and embedding strong foundations of focus and self-belief can make a dramatic difference to children’s outcomes quickly starts to look pretty convincing. They Did You Can is written directly for young people, and you will almost certainly have particular students for whom it could be a transformational recommended read; but his anecdotes, attitude and suggestions for activities could easily and effectively be delivered in a classroom context, too.