Our Sport Development team are celebrating success at the FA Women’s and Girls’ Football Participation Awards.
TyneMet College are winners of the ‘Best Educational Establishment’ award for the 2020 FA Women’s and Girls’ Football Participation Awards. The prestigious awards recognises the achievements of clubs, players, staff and the important work by volunteers at the grassroots level of the game.
TyneMet’s award win is recognition of the positive impact that they’ve have had across Newcastle and North Tyneside in both increasing the participation of women and girls in football activity and through developing the future female football workforce. Much of this success is also testament to the college’s hardworking FA Women and Girls Apprentice, Bobbie-Lou Taylor, who has exceeded her apprentice participation targets by 2588%.
Partnership work is at the heart of this brilliant award and the college has established two successful SSE Wildcats centres for girls aged 5 – 11 with North Shields Juniors AFC & John Spence Community High School as well as Jesmond Park Academy and Heaton Hawks FC.
The college delivered taster sessions in primary schools across Newcastle and North Tyneside in the short 19/20 season and engaged 861 girls in football, with a focus on KS1 and giving girls a positive ‘first’ experience of football within curriculum time in a girls’ only environment. Following on from the taster sessions, the college had 62 girls attend our new Wildcats Centre, with 44 directly coming from attending the taster sessions. The aim of the project is to engage girls in football within their school curriculum time, signpost them to a Wildcats Centre with the hope they would transition into playing for a local Grassroots team within their community.
TyneMet College also delivered girls football sessions in local secondary schools, engaging 94 girls in total. Through the college’s inspirational FA Women & Girls Apprentice, Bobbie-Lou, they recruited 5 girls aged 14-16 from local schools into volunteering roles within our Wildcats centres.
The college also provides an inclusive recreational football offer that included a female learners within a pan disability football session and a specific intervention to deliver football sessions for female learners from Health & Social Care and Hair & Beauty with 72 learners taking part in a 4-week block of sessions.
Sport Development Officer Hannah Marshall said:
We are all absolutely thrilled to win such a prestigious award! Being involved in the women and girls football development projects are always a hugely rewarding highlight of my working week, but it is amazing to receive national recognition for the hard work, passion and commitment from everyone involved in these projects and I’d like to say a huge thank you to our partners and friends at NSJAFC, Heaton Hawks FC, North Tyneside School Games, the Ouseburn Learning Trust and our apprentices Bobbie & Olivia.
Due to the impact of COVID-19, the awards were unable to be held formally, however England Lionesses’ defender Demi Stokes, surprised Sport Development Officer, Hannah Marshall with the news over a video call.
Watch our Sport Development Officer, Hannah Marshall receive the surprise video call.