Euros Football Festival Fun

The South Cambs School Sports Partnership recently hosted an afternoon of football fun for teams of Year 3/4 girls at Melbourn Village College. The event which was aimed at girls who are beginners or new to football attracted entries from 12 schools. The aim was to engage new audiences in football, develop children’s physical skills and most importantly promote fun and friendships.

With the Women’s Euros taking place in Switzerland this summer the event was linked to this with each of the 14 teams taking part allocated a Women’s Euro 2025 Finals country to represent and given a set of t-shirts to wear.

The event involved lots of friendly matches against different teams and the girls were set the challenge of coming up with a fun goal celebration whilst the Football Fun Factory attended and set up lots of mini goals so the girls could practice their shooting skills when they didn’t have a game. It was all focused on giving the girls a really fun afternoon whilst providing many of them with their first opportunity to play competitive football.

The teams of Year 3/4 girls came from Histon & Impington Brook, Petersfield, Dry Drayton, Thriplow, Melbourn, Meldreth, Bar Hill, Girton, Histon & Impington Park Linton Heights, Haslingfield and Barnabas Oley Primary Schools.

A team of year 9 & 10 sports leaders from Melbourn Village College supported the event, refereed the matches and made sure everything ran smoothly. We are grateful to them for their support and Nicky from Melbourn Dynamos Wildcats who attended the event and encouraged the girls and sports leaders.

Partnership Manager, Claire McDonnell said,

“It was a fun afternoon and great to see so many girls playing football with smiles on their faces. We hope we have inspired some of them to play more, whether that’s in school or out in the local community. They need to know football is for them.

Whilst great progress has been made and more and more schools are offering girls the chance to play football, we know that many girls are still put off playing as boys dominate the playgrounds for example and girls don’t feel comfortable joining in. We need to make sure they have their own space and opportunity to play should they want to. Events like this help them to realise that football is for them, and they should be able to play if they want to.”

South Cambs 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. To find out more visit www.girlsfootballinschools.org