Let Girls Play 2025

Our series of events for ‘Let Girls Play’ began first thing Monday morning, when local and special educational needs school Delamere came to visit. They brought eight girls of differing abilities and needs. After introductions, a welcome, and a teacher led warm up, four pupils from year six delivered drills to pupils. Our year sixes had practised these drills after school, on the Friday night in their own time. Clear instructions were given by our pupils, and following a demonstration, the Delamere pupils carried out the drills with confidence. There was plenty of support and encouragement from our young leaders. We then had a penalty shoot out followed by a game. The Delamere pupils dominated possession but the final score was 1-1. Premier League prizes were given out and the Delamere pupils left with huge smiles on their faces. It was wonderful to have them visit and participate in activity at our school, and promote inclusivity. Sport is for all!

In the early spring sunshine on the following Wednesday, our KS1 ‘Get Moving’ club ran a session teaching football skills to five girls, followed by a small sided match.

Following morning registration and ‘Travel Tracker’, the children were played and viewed a motivational video from none other than Manchester United and England star player Ella Toone, who’s message was to encourage the girls to try their best today, and have lots of fun!

Rachel Robinson from Manchester’s FA returned to Springfield to coach 37 year 3 girls, followed by 40 year 4 on the muga. The children had fun with a range of warm up and skills practice. One particular SEN child who struggles to engage in learning at the moment, took part in Rachel’s whole session with confidence and enjoyment. This was a joy to see! Through a relationship we have established, we arranged for Jazz Apples to kindly donate apples, as a healthy snack for this event, meaning each girl left with a healthy snack.

Whilst Rachel continued to use the muga, a group of 42 year 2 children took part in a session with Miss McNally on the playground. The children loved the freedom of playing in such a big space, and they followed instructions well, and finished with a really enjoyable game.

Also, 20 nursery and 45 reception girls took part in football sessions during their PE lessons, with our own coach Mr Brown.

At lunchtime 40 year 1 children joined a lunchtime football session, while simultaneously, 20 reception girls enjoyed a football session on their playgroup with a lunchtime supervisor.

Hidden throughout the school playground were WSL badges. KS1 had to count the number of badges they could find. KS2 had to list the team badges. Children submitted their answers and two winners received an England FA backpack and ball, along with a Premier League pad and pen. One lucky winner will also get a football computer game.

After lunch we held an intra school football tournament. We had music playing, and children warming their own teams up, ready to play in our tournament. The children managed their own teams, arriving ready to

play on time. We had 8 teams of 9 girls, meaning a whooping 72 children were outside at one time taking part. Non participants wrote match reports, took photos and conducted interviews. Jazz Apples were again given out and enjoyed by participants in this tournament too.

After school we hosted an inter school tournament, with teams coming from All Saints, Brooklands, St Joseph’s and Tyntesfield. Each school played fixtures against one another, meaning another 35 girls got to play football. Two sports leaders from BTH and Sale Grammar School helped out, keeping the girls busy when they didn’t have a match with some fun drills. Each girl who participated received a Premier League notebook and pen, along with a healthy snack of a Soreen bar. One girl from each school was awarded MVP and received a book and pen as a prize to congratulate them.

In total we had 353 girls taking part in our ‘Let Girls Play’ event an increase of 24% compared to last year! 11.5 hours were spent playing football this week.

Have a look at our photos on:

https://www.springfieldprimarysale.co.uk/girls-football/

Premier League Primary Stars Football Tournament 

On Tuesday 11th June we travelled down to London with St Mary’s boys football team to take part in the Premier League Primary Stars football tournament to represent MUFC.
After an afternoon of football training on a local field, dinner together and a football quiz we went to bed early to prepare for a ginormous day of football.

On the morning of Wednesday 12th we travelled by coach to the Gtech Community Stadium, home of Brentford FC.

Nearly 10,000 children took part in the qualifying round for this final.
Our girls lead out MUFC wearing their own MUFC kit experiencing the thrill of what is like to be a Premier League footballer.
The girls had the most amazing time playing on the pitch lead perfectly by Evie Chard and Miss McNally.

A day none of us will forget.

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!

We are the Girls Manchester United Premier League Primary Stars Champions 2024!

#letgirlsplay
On Wednesday 8th March 2023 we took part in the initiative #letgirlsplay It was designed to encourage and support all girls in having equal access to Football in schools and the community. Reception girls took part in a penalty shoot out and years one to four joined in with drills, which were set up on the playground during their lunchtime. After lunch we held intra football competitions for the year 5 and 6 children. Nicole from the Greater Manchester Football Association came by to support and encourage the children. Furthermore, after school we held an inter school football tournament against St Joseph’s, All Saint and St Mary’s. Great fun was had despite the cold conditions. Ex pupils came along to keep the girls who weren’t playing warm with their own designed drills. It has been a brilliant day! We think we had 238 girls playing football today. #letgirlsplay