Girls Football Project
Term 1 2015/16
Block 1: August 2015- October 2015
The girl’s football project has expanded this year, Active Schools put in place cluster clubs in 5 areas of South Ayrshire; Belmont, Prestwick, Troon, Girvan, and Maybole. The purpose of this was to give P3/4 girls an opportunity take part in football coaching for 5 weeks, and participate in a festival at the end. The cluster club sessions took place on a Thursday after school, and were delivered by senior pupils and student volunteers supported by the Active Schools team. The senior pupils delivering the sessions had the opportunity to improve their coaching skills, as well as giving the girls taking part an opportunity to play football.
“My favourite part was the festival at PrestwickAcademy, we got to play lots of games against girls from other schools.”
Tiegan Nicol, P4 Barassie Primary School
“I love playing football, we have been practising all our skills, its great fun and I can’t wait for next year!”
Gracie-Jo O’Neil, P3 St Patricks Primary School
The aim of the festival was to give girls in South Ayrshire an opportunity to play fun games and link them to local clubs. The festival was held at Prestwick Academy after the 5 weeks of coaching, and ran in partnership with the SFA through the FIFA initiative “live your goals”. This initiative has been developed to attract girls to play football and aims to keep them in the game. The festival was also supported by senior pupils who delivered at the sessions, who helped in setting up the pitches and refereeing the games.
The girls played 7 minute 4v4 matches within their clusters and played against different teams. The girls were then given a pink “live your goals” adidas t shirt after the festival was finished. The t-shirts were supplied by the Scottish FA as part of the initiative. Over 50 girls attended the festival representing each cluster of schools in South Ayrshire.
The festival and the coaching sessions provided the girls with a pathway into playing football regularly to further improve their ability levels, and more importantly be active and have fun. Increasing participation from an early age was a key aim of the project as introducing the girls to football at P3/4 level gives them an opportunity to learn the basic fundamentals of football. This in turn gives them more time to progress and play for a longer period. A number of girls have now moved on to play with Caledonian YFC and most of the girls have returned to the girls have football sessions which are still running in the clusters to further improve their ability levels, and to have fun playing a sport they love.
Block 2: October 2015 – December 2015
Girl’s football was then continued for another 6 weeks to further improve participation and the ability levels of the girls taking part. The reason for continuing the sessions was due to popular demand of girls wanting to keep playing the sport. The cluster clubs were again delivered by Senior Pupils and Student Volunteers.
“I have loved being part of this. It’s been great experience and really helped me develop as a coach.”
Keiran McLaughlin, S6 Queen Margaret Academy
“Working with the girl’s football project has helped us develop our coaching ability and techniques for College, looking forward to working with the girls again next year.”
Jamie Agnew & Evan Martin, HNC Students Ayrshire College
“My girls have been attending these football sessions since the summer, and they absolutely love it. Huge thank you to all the coaches for their enthusiasm.”
Susan Graham, Parent
Block 1 August – October
Term / Location / Age / Day / Time / Weeks / Festival / Attendees / CoachesAug – Oct / Marr Playing Fields (Outdoor) / P3/4 / Thursday / 4:30 – 5:30 / 5 / SA Festival / P3: 9
P4: 11 / Keiran Gallagher
Aug – Oct / Prestwick Ac / P3&4 / Thursday / 4-5pm / 5 / SA Festival / 12 / Louis McInotsh
Fraser Paterson
CarraghRoberston
Lauren McBlain
Aug – Oct / Belmont Ac / P3/4 / Thurdsay / 4 – 5pm / 6 / SA Festival / P3: 19
P4: 11 / Rory Tait &
Taylor Patterson
Aug – Oct / Carrick Academy / P3/4 / Thursday / 4- 5pm / 6 / SA Festival / P4: 8 / Ryan Douglas
Mark Devlin
Aug – Oct / Victory Park / P3-4 / Thursday / 4.30-5.30pm / 5 / SA Festival / 17 / 3
Block 2 October – December
Term / Location / Age / Day / Time / Weeks / Festival / Attendees / CoachesOct – Dec / Barassie Primary School (Indoor) / P3/4 / Thursday / 4:30 – 5:30 / 6 / Christmas Party / P3:10
P4:12 / Keiran Gallagher
Evan Martin
Jamie Agnew
Oct – Dec / Prestwick Ac / P3-7 / Thurs / 4-5pm / 4 / N/A / 12 / Louis McInotsh
Fraser Paterson
Lauren McBlain
Cameron McKenzie
Oct – Dec / Belmont Ac / P3/4 / Thu / 4 – 5pm / 6 / N/A / P3: 11
P4: 2 / Stephen Baird & Miguel McIntosh
Oct – Dec / Girvan Primary / P3-6 / Thursday / 4.30-5.30pm / 8 / N/A / 30 / 4
During block 1 over 87 girls from Primary 3 & 4 took part in the Girls Football Programme throughout South Ayrshire, with over 50 of the Girls attending the South Ayrshire Festival at Prestwick Academy. In block 2 a number of the clubs were opened to P5 & 6 pupils with participation reaching 77 girls. In total 16 coaches took part in the programme across the 5 locations.
Future Plans
The next step is to develop a 4 v4 girl’s football league for the next term, this is to introduce the girls to the competitive side of the game and understand the responsibilities of being part of a team. The girl’s football sessions will be open to P3/4 and P5-7 pupils as we are aiming to increase the number of girls playing football in South Ayrshire.
Active Schools now have recruited 2 voluntary student interns from SRUC who have been selected to take on lead roles in managing and promoting Girls Football in key target areas,Maybole/ Girvan and Whitletts Road. These areas were identified in Term 1 as having low participation rates and the Interns will look to deliver taster sessions, link with local clubs/ community groups and increase participation at Cluster Clubs.
Overall the girls’ football project was a success as all the girls’ ability improved, this was shown when they were playing 4v4 games at the festival at Prestwick Academy. The sessions after school at the cluster clubs improved the girls overall ability in learning the basic fundamentals of football. Developing club links provided the girls with a pathway to playing regular football after the festivals, although there is still some work to be done to make girls more aware of the pathway into clubs.