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Girl's Football

Let Girls Play!

Originally our #Letgirlsplay day of activities was just going to be held on International Women’s Day (8^th March), however our timetable of events and opportunities grew, so we began celebrating on Thursday 7^th March.

On the Thursday Rachel Robinson, Manchester FA’s W&G CC, came into school and in cold but sunny conditions led two thirty minute sessions with forty year 3 girls, followed by a sixty minute session with thirty one year two girls. On our school muga Rachel led various drills where the girls practised ball skills, including dribbling, passing and shooting. I and other members of staff observed and took part in these session, which was great CPD.

In between the sessions, Rachel led a Q&A with our year 6 girls football team, who will soon represent MUFC in the Primary Stars tournament. Rachel discussed her journey to becoming the 2022 National coach of the year for youth football, along with her career highlights and experience. The girls asked her pre designed questions and were interested in her opinions on the four corner model, along with the psychological affects of the game. Our favourite quote from the day was, “I’ve never played football before but this is the best!”. Rachel shared information through leaflets about the coaching she does at ‘Fives’ on Trafford Park and I hope some go and take part in her sessions.

On Friday the children were all greeted by England and Manchester United midfielder Ella Toone who left us a personalised message, wishing the girls a great day and to enjoy the opportunities on offer. Staff discussed the opportunities available that day, so the girls knew how they could get involved.

We initiated a game, where we hid small pictures of the Lionesses team of 2023 around the school. KS1 children (boys and girls) had to count how many lionesses they could find and write their answers on a post-it-note. This was posted in an entry box and a bundle of Premier League goodies will be given to pupils with the correct answer. Similarly the KS2 children had entry sheets where they had to name the 11 Lionesses that were hidden around school. In assembly on Monday the winners will also be presented with Premier League prizes.

During KS1 lunch, Joe Quigley who runs Fun Football Factory, came into school and led sessions with me on the muga. Inviting Joe meant the girls could meet a community coach who offers sessions near to where they live, which will hopefully encourage them to attend future sessions. We had 105 girls from year 1 to 3 take part in a fun session, where the girls practised ball skills of dribbling and shooting. Joe made all the sessions super fun, and he was warm and encouraging. Hopefully some of the girls will go and join in with his sessions in the future. It was nice to see some girls join the session who didn’t take part the previous day.

In our Reception playground twenty girls took part in some shooting and small game sessions led by a lunchtime supervisor.

Nursery had footballs and mini goals out in their continuous provision and twenty-seven girls enjoyed shooting and small sided games.

In the afternoon we held an intra school competition. The girls who wanted to play were split into mixed ability groups. They had to lead their own warn ups and then played one another in short games. The girls who didn’t want to take part, wrote match reports, took photos, encouraged others and interviewed the girls. It was wonderful to see sixty girls taking part. Amazing team work, tenacity and confidence was shown by all. The games were refereed by our girls A team football players. They did a great job, they were firm and fair, and well respected by the players.

After school we invited our B team to remain at school and take part in our inter school tournament. Our A team have had and will have lots of opportunities to play, so we wanted to give other girls the opportunity to represent school. We invited three local Primary schools, St Joseph’s, Brooklands and Tyntesfield, and they played in friendly matches against one another. When the girls weren’t playing, they took part in skills and mini games led by ex-Springfield pupils. Each girl received a Premier League water bottle and a healthy snack for their efforts. Teachers from the other schools had to nominate a girl from another school who they thought had shown good sportsmanship, manners, good communication and great football skills. These four girls received a bag of Premier League merchandise.

In total we believe we had around 270 girls playing football at school. It was a brilliant fun and encouraging two days!