Croydon Primary Schools' Tag Rugby Tournament

We are aiming to make facilities at Trinity more accessible to state-maintained Primary Schools within the borough as well as supporting the delivery of PE sessions and tournaments for those schools.

We aim to identify the ‘wants’ and ‘needs’ of local schools to provide a bespoke range of sessions, staff CPD and tournaments for school pupils and staff to attend.

We hope the sessions will be engaging and promote pupil’s enjoyment of sport and as a result, their participation levels. By hosting tournaments, we can provide a local venue with access to outstanding facilities which we hope will be inspiring and convenient for schools to attend.

We recognise the barriers to participation that affect many schools including lack of budget, access to transport and lack of suitably trained specialist sports staff or sufficient field space to host major events.

Aims

To provide a free and inclusive tournament suitable for all school’s in the borough wishing to take part.

To provide an inspiring tournament that will encourage players to do their best, demonstrate the core values of rugby union (teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship) and to develop rugby skills (including fundamental movement, catch, pass, run and evade)

To use trained Trinity pupils who are Youth Match Officials to organise, deliver and officiate the tournament.

The tournament is a completely developmental festival, so the match scores are not recorded, nor do they determine the outcome of the festival. There are no ‘knock-out’ stages, all schools play the same number of matches and there is no overall winner. Instead, awards are given for teams demonstrating the best core values throughout the afternoon.

Background

The Head of Sports Outreach at Trinity School was approached by one of her partner Primary Schools and asked to host a tournament as they could not find a venue where all matches could be played in one central venue.

The school also asked for help with the pre-tournament organisation, delivery and provision of match officials to run the tournament as many Primary teachers do not have the knowledge of rugby required to referee. The tournament has been running for the past 4 years and runs annually in Sept/Oct each year.

Trinity arrange to train 20 5th form Young Match Officials prior to the tournament to give them a recognised qualification as part of the wider Leadership scheme at the school. These pupils are then helped by Anastacia to learn and understand the process of organising a tournament, splitting teams into a working draw and finally, timekeeping and refereeing the games to ensure they are praising good play, upholding the laws of the game and providing coaching points where relevant.

Resources

Main school pitches are used for this tournament as well as the pavilion. Rugby staff oversee the safety of the tournament as well as the Trinity YMOs. Two members of teaching staff are utilised during the tournament. Trinity provides a snack and drink for every player attending as well as refreshments for parent spectators and staff. Trinity provide all the equipment on the pitch as well as t-shirts for the YMOs.

Impact

"I just want to say thank you very much, on behalf of all schools that attended yesterday, for another successful Croydon Schools’ Rugby Competition...Your boys are a credit to you and to Trinity. I have to say that their attitude and demeanour towards both the adults and children was outstanding and I received many comments from staff, at other schools, to the same effect...We are very fortunate to have these free, high quality, opportunities available for both our staff and pupils."

PE Co-ordinator
St.Joseph’s Jr School

Pupil Involvement

20 boys from Trinity School are involved as Young Match Officials. The boys range from aged 15-16 year old. Trinity School staff oversee and host the event and Trinity School catering staff are also involved.

Frequency

This tournament runs every year and will continue to do so. It is now the recognised venue for this event and it is immediately put in the diary for the following year after each event.