January saw the schools go back after Christmas and we were delighted to welcome a new school into the mix – Downsview Community Primary School in Swanley.
Julie Sutherland will be leading the provision, offering PE to the girls at the school two times a week.
A new Primary School football league kicked off at the club on Mondays, run by Elliott, Leo and Sam Odaudu. There are two divisions with 10 schools in one and nine in the other, running alternate weeks. The top four from each qualify for a finals’ day in May.
Julie has also started doing mental health talks in schools for girls during her six-week courses – this is part of the Barclay’s program which we received the funding for.
We have had some very good meetings with Kent Police recently which is keen to partner with us on a number of initiatives, including a Wednesday night football session at Temple Hill.
The Community team has also applied for other funding streams, with Bluewater the first one to get off the ground. The £1,500 they approved will go towards some infant agility sessions in the summer.
We had an amazing turnout from our schools at recent first team matches. We invited six schools, offering free tickets, for the Billericay match, which saw 167 new fans take up the offer. We had over 50 more at the next home match against Hashtag.
This is going to be something we continue doing for the remainder of the season and there are plans to do some other things in the ground to keep the children entertained away from the football and hopefully encourage them – and their parents – to come back again! We have a full week planned for half-term, including some free football sessions for girls on one of the days, so have a busy month ahead!
