BENARTY Primary School played host to a VIP last Friday when Fife Provost, Jim Leishman, went along for a visit along with local businessman Kevin Sharp and members of Lodge Ballingry.

Mr Leishman had some words of encouragement to say to Benarty’s youngest football playing pupils, the nursery and P1 Mini Kickers. He then met the school football team and a serious ‘teamtalk’ with them.

Callum Shields said, “He told us that you need courage and practice to play football.

“He also said we still needed to work hard at school to get qualifications in case becoming a professional footballer didn’t work out.” Teammate, Kamuran Bezgin added, “Jim Leishman told us to always try our hardest and not to blame other people. He said we needed to understand our team. For example if they are left or right footed you need to pass to that foot.” Both boys agreed and Kamuran described how they felt, “It made us feel really special at meeting Jim Leishman, who has been a professional football manager. He’s now a director of Dunfermline Football Club as well as being Lord Provost of Fife.” Callum expressed admiration for what Jim Leishman had achieved by saying, “After he retired as a professional footballer he became a successful professional manager. “He’s met the Queen and he’s got a medal. We just wish our manager, Mr Berry our janitor, had been here today to see us. He started our team off.” Added headteacher Isabel Taylor, “Jim Leishman’s visit just capped what has been a great day. I am so proud of the school and its pupils and so grateful to the community for their support. The assembly this morning showed how hard staff and pupils have worked this term. The community support has been fantastic and together we can achieve a lot for the school.” Mr Sharp said that his fellow members at Lodge Ballingry felt that distributing Easter Eggs to school and nursery pupils in the Benarty area before they broke off for their fortnight’s holiday was a good way of starting the build-up to Easter.

“We felt that we wanted to do something for the children of the community and it was tremendous to see the smiles on their faces when they received the eggs.”