Schools Programmes Round-Up

It’s been another action-packed academic year at The Harlequins Foundation, with so many exciting schools' programmes being delivered to young people in the Harlequins Heartlands and beyond. We’re delighted with the progress that’s taken place this year and can’t wait to welcome back the students in September 2023 for another year of wonderful programmes; hopefully, bigger and better than ever! 

Overview of the year: 

SWITCH –

We’ve made some amazing progress in SWITCH over the season, with the standout highlight being the launch of our first ever SWITCH Festival at The Stoop. The festival welcomed 10 schools in total and was a huge success, meeting our aims of increasing accessibility and participation, inspiring and excelling and developing and sustaining those involved.   

One of the Teachers from St James’s School spoke about the benefits of SWITCH Festival and how it supports the development of the Essential Skills needed in life: 

“There are so many other benefits to rugby - the self-confidence – you know you see them working with people, not just in their class but mixing with their year group, we have got a few year 5s in the team, as well and you can see their confidence grow and they are able to hold themselves within this team and in later life as well.” 

From a staff perspective, Sheree Cooper, Schools Programme Coach, Harlequins Women’s player and lead on the Switch Festival delivery for The Harlequins Foundation spoke about the success of the festival:   

“It was great to see so many girls participate in our SWITCH festival last week and, for most of them, this was their first ever competitive rugby fixture/tournament. Hopefully, we can build our SWITCH programme more next year and offer more opportunities for young girls to play rugby.” 

Project Rugby –

Our Project Rugby delivery in schools has once again been a great success this season. The joint initiative with the RFU and Premiership Rugby was designed to increase participation in the game by people from traditionally underrepresented groups. There has been many highlights over the season, but none more than our Project Rugby Festivals that took place at The Stoop on the 24th May and the 8th June respectively.  

Our first festival was delivered in partnership with The Metropolitan Police, where over 100 students from local Secondary Schools take part in a touch rugby tournament. When they were not playing, they were taking part workshops delivered by the police. The workshops taking place during the day included time with the armed responses teams, public order branch and marine unit teams.

Having The Metropolitan Police as our partner for the Project Rugby Festival was a great opportunity for young people from traditionally underrepresented groups and backgrounds to not only be involved in rugby but to also speak to officers in an open environment.   

Speaking about the day, Rob Gould, Schools Manager who led the delivery of the Project Rugby Festival said:   

“It was such a great day! Getting kids who might not normally play rugby taking part in a game of touch on the pitch Quins play on is such an amazing opportunity for young people. As well as the rugby it was great having the different police units stationed around The Stoop, educating young people about what they do, and how they work to keep the community they live in safe”.  

The second festival saw around 100 students coming from eight local SEND schools. Our team delivered inclusive rugby skills games to engage students, including Robot Rugby, Rugby Darts and Rugby Netball. Other activities delivered on the day included Chaos Tag, Assault Course and Rob the Nest.   

It was also a great pleasure to welcome the Surrey Cricket Foundation who held a number of cricket-based activities for the students such as throwing games and seeing how far you can hit the ball.  

Rugby In A Box –

Rugby In A Box has helped support the development of The Essential Skills young people need to succeed in life across the Harlequins Heartlands. This season, RIAB was delivered to several schools in the community, with physical equipment included alongside a coaching handbook and online sources to support the delivery of sessions that embed the Essential Skills.

Move, Learn, Grow –

Move, Learn, Grow is the partnership with Sport Impact which originally developed due to the fear surrounding the drop of physical activity levels consequently from the COVID-19 pandemic. Move, Learn, Grow. offers a number of wide-ranging support packages to primary schools across Richmond, Kingston and Hounslow. This ranges from curriculum development and planning to numeracy, literacy and Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) programmes.  

METTLE –

METTLE has continued to be implemented across our primary and secondary schools with the aim of raising awareness and understanding around mental health whilst supporting the development of mental resilience for young people involved. METTLE is broken down across four topics: Relationships, Emotions, Self-care and Physical activity.  

Inclusion and Wellbeing –

Our Healthy Holiday Programme (HAF) has been so rewarding over the academic year, with The Harlequins Foundation hosting schemes in Christmas and Easter, with the upcoming summer schemes coming up in a few days' time (29th July – 24th August at both Kingston Academy and Reach Academy). A huge thanks to all of those who signed up to HAF, we have been really pleased with the turnout for the programmes. 

As a foundation, we’ve been proud to run this programme in several locations in the Harlequins Heartlands to support sessions made up of fun-filled activities that have included Kwik Cricket, Tag Rugby, Robot Rugby plus more! Most importantly, each child will also receive a benefit related hot free meal while they are at HAF.  

One of our personal highlights? 

Being joined by the Harlequins Women’s players at the Project Rugby Festival, where the students were able to have photos with them and ask their questions about how they got involved in the sport why they think rugby is such a great sport to play. Such moments are so impactful in the lives of young people, and can really leave a lasting impact for years to come.