World Cup fever comes to South Norfolk - News - South Norfolk SSP

World Cup fever comes to South Norfolk

On Tuesday 4th July twelve schools attended the South Norfolk School Sport Partnerships FIFA Women’s World Cup inspired football Festival at Langley School. As the lionesses prepare for their World Cup venture the SSP wanted to get as many girls involved in football as possible and allow them to express themselves in a football environment.

The morning session was open to secondary school pupils in year 7-8 and the afternoon session was open to primary school’s year 3-6. Although the day was based around the element of football, the festival was also about helping the girls gain confidence, learn respect, build on teamwork and communication skills as well as having lots of fun and learning about the upcoming World Cup.

The day saw over 200 Girls taking part in football all proudly displaying different football shirts (National teams, Club shirts, School Kit). It was lovely to see so many different teams represented. After the event the pupils had an opportunity to self-reflect on the festival and find out what they had learnt and enjoyed by using the Game On- Social Challenge cards. These included telling another member of the team what they had done well, saying something positive to every player on their team, how they have improved and who has a good problem solver or resilient in their teams.

Some of the feedback from the event:

“I was really nervous at the start because I don’t usually play football and I’m not very good at it, but the leaders were really nice and they encouraged me to have a go. By playing with the girls, I felt more confident and got to practice.”

“I felt much more included playing with girls than I do when I play in school.”

“The girls were full of smiles and laugher through the different events”.

“A fun, inclusive and engaging festival”.

"It was a lovely day of football and great to be able to give so many girls their first opportunity to play football outside of school. They had a fun time playing with their friends and representing their schools and they all left with massive smiles on their faces."

A big thank you to Langley School for letting us host the festival and providing 16 leaders for the day. This was their first experience of leadership, they did an excellent job and really grew in confidence as the day progressed.

We hope that some of them will continue to play back in school and some may even want to join their local Weetabix Wildcats session or girls club. We are slowly seeing more and more opportunities for girls to play football in schools and the community which is great as we work towards ensuring all girls have equal access to football. Many of them saw the success of the Lionesses last summer and now they want the same opportunities to play football as the boys.

South Norfolk School Sport Partnership is part of a nationwide scheme that aims to mainstream football in school for girls with the vision to ensure every girl has equal access to football in school by 2024. To find out more visit www.girlsfootballinschools.org

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