“How many fingers am I holding up?” Kelly demanded to know as the Year 4, 5 and 6 players attempted to dribble around brightly coloured yellow and blue cones with their heads held high.

“A Maradona turn? Good idea but it’s a bit difficult to demonstrate,” Kelly admitted as one Spurs supporting player answered the Arsenal striker’s call for trick turns with the trickiest of suggestions.  But the girls were equal to them all and so was Kelly when she sat down after an hour of football on the hot school playing field to answer her pupil’s burning questions.

Chloe: "Have you got any friends in the Arsenal team?"
Kelly: "Most of them are my friends. Likewise I hope that you are all buddies here. My best friends on the Arsenal team are Faye White and Alex Scott. They are probably the closest."

Amy: "How long have you been playing football?"
Kelly: "I started playing when I was six for a boys’ team because there were no girls’ teams, so over 20 years."

Karla: What was your worst injury?"
Kelly: "An ACL [anterior cruciate ligament knee injury]. I was turning and it popped, it’s very common. Now I have the Achilles tendon of a dead person [in my knee]."

Angela: "Which other teams have you played for?"
Kelly: "I played in America for seven years. I started at a university called Seton Hall and I played football there for three years. I took a year out coaching and then played for professional team Philadelphia Charge, which was a great experience for me. And getting paid for doing something that I loved – it was amazing."

Annie: "How many matches have you won this year?"
Kelly: "At Arsenal, we lost in the League Cup and the Uefa Cup, but we’ve still got our unbeaten league record. I think we have gone 60-plus league games unbeaten. But we are beatable."

Jessie: "How did you get interested in football?"
Kelly: "Well, my parents said I always had a ball at my feet before I could walk. I just always wanted to play. I was always with the boys at break time, putting down jumpers for goalposts."

Jessica: "What was the highest score in any game you’ve played in?"
Kelly: "It is probably 15-0. I think it was against West Ham [she says pointing to a Hammers fan in the group]. Only joking, I can’t remember who it was against."

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Having watched Kelly inspire a new generation of female players at Bowmans Green school, Fair Game magazine got the chance to take stock of the year with the England star. And what an emotional rollercoaster of a season it has been: four goals scored in front of thousands at the World Cup, two more titles with Arsenal, lounging on a sofa with Take That, coupled with two crushing defeats with the Gunners and an exhausting domestic and international routine that has not let up since 2006. So how has Smith, capped 70 times for her country and the only Englishwoman to have played professional football in America, coped with it all?

Kelly: "It’s been a hard year emotionally for me and I would say my team mates. Having come off the back of the World Cup and experiencing such a high and playing against the best players in the world with the best facilities and the crowds behind us and coming back to our domestic programme where it was a bit of a lull. All season it’s been hard because you know you have to perform. A lot of players haven’t enjoyed the season until the FA Cup final, which is always a nice way to end the season. It’s not just the Arsenal players, Everton as well because it’s long, 18 months playing without a break."

Fair Game: "So you’ll be looking forward to your holidays then?"
KS: "Yes! I’m going to the Caribbean but the thing is the training programme starts again then so we’ll be training on holiday, getting up early in the morning, trying to beat the heat. We’ve got a hotel with nice facilities so we’ll be laying out the cones at 7am."

FG: "What do you think the other hotel guests will make of that?"
KS: "They’ll think we’re mad; we had to do it last year as well. But we’ve got Germany coming up so you are going to have to work your hardest to be fit. I think Hope [Powell] put that one in there as a frightener."

FG: "Looking back on the season, what has been your favourite goal?"
KS: "The FA Cup final first goal because for so long I didn’t think it was coming and it was one of those games where we dominated and I’ve played in games like that before where you just can’t score. But the ball from Rachel Yankey was right on my foot so I couldn’t miss."

FG: "Which game has left you the most battered and bruised?"
KS: "The Bristol game at home. It was very competitive. I missed the away game, which we won 1-0 but it was quite intense so when they came to us it was the same type of game."

FG: "You’ve been on the telly a fair bit this year, what was it like going on Jonathan Ross?"
KS: "It was good doing the show, sitting next to Take That in the green room. But I was really nervous."

FG: "Were you worried he would take the mickey?" KS: "A lot of people said "why are you going on the show? he’ll rip you apart", but it’s about getting exposure for women’s football. I saw him beforehand and had a word, but he said he’d seen me play in the World Cup and thought it would be great to have me in to promote the game." FG: "Do you feel a responsibility to promote the game?" KS: "I do, having been in the national side for so long, to be a face and move the game forward and do what I can, whether it’s events like this for the girls to see what they can achieve. I never had that so it’s a goal for them." FG: "Arsenal’s assistant coach Emma Hayes has left to manage a professional American side. Is that a big loss?" KS: "Emma leaving is a big blow to the club, she’s brought so much energy into the side and it was good having a young female coach with a lot of passion about the game. She didn’t really want to go but the offer was too big to turn down."

FG: "Do you think you might follow in her footsteps?"
KS: "I’ve just bought a house, I’m happy in England, I’ve got my family and friends close by which I didn’t have for seven years and I love being at Arsenal and being a part of the club. I’ve got a good deal with them in terms of my job, so for me to leave all that behind it would take a very big offer."

FG: "What kind of offer?"
KS: "Financial. For me it would be about money because I feel I’ve already been to America and done that. I spoke to my old Philadelphia Charge coach Mark Krikorian a couple of weeks ago and he said that I am a wanted player out there, which surprised me because I see my age as an issue."

FG: "You aren’t that old!"
KS: [Laughs] "No I suppose not, I’m 30 this year so I think I’ve got another three or four years at the top."

FG: "But wouldn’t you like to spend those in a more competitive set-up?"
KS: "Hmm. The US league would mean playing alongside and against the top players and would be so competitive, as it was when I was playing before.  So do I go out there to get that?  These are all questions I have to ask myself."

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• Fair Game is the UK's number one womens football magazine - visit www.fgmag.com to find out more.

• Kelly was helping promote the FA's campaign for girls to get involved in football by joining a local football club – visit www.thefa.com/womens/gettinginvolved to find your nearest club.

• Kelly vistied Bowmans Green school as part of a "sponsoredbyyou.com" coaching visit, organised by England team sponsors Nationwide Building Society. Nationwide are offering their international football tickets, VIP opportunities, mascots, signed shirts and training sessions back to their customers through the 'Sponsored by you' campaign.  Visit www.sponsoredbyyou.com for the chance to win these prizes.