LONDON: Premier League side Arsenal will be working alongside UK county Middlesex’s Football Association in the city to provide free-of-cost training to young girls in primary schools.
In what is known as the ‘Arsenal Women Sister School Programme’, the aim behind the initiative is to instill the love of football and create a culture around the sport. As many as 10 free membership packages are up for grabs for which schools can apply through an online application. Schools selected for it stand to win a chance to receive perks such as –
• More than 100 Arsenal Women FC home tickets
• 6 hours of coaching support visits
• More than 10 coaching session plans
• More than 1 school assembly to be delivered by Arsenal Women coaches
• Access to more than 3 teacher development workshops
• Access to play in the Arsenal Women Sister School Festival
The initiative also targets supporting and grooming coaches with the confidence and skill to develop girls’ football in these schools. A female teacher will get the opportunity to complete The FA Level 1 course in Coaching Football, which will be delivered by Arsenal Women across the October and February half terms.
“Arsenal Women provide one of the best sister school offers, we’re delighted to be working with them to offer more girls and schools in Middlesex the opportunity to be play football, ” said Middlesex FA head of Participation, Lynsey Edwards.
Tom Hartley, development officer for Arsenal Women explained, “To work with Middlesex FA to support the development of Women & Girl’s football within the county, especially providing these opportunities to schools & teachers for free is fantastic. We hope that these opportunities will inspire the next generation of female players and coaches”.
Arsenal Women’s plans are beyond Middlesex as they are also running a Player Development Programme and Sister Club Programme.
