Activity Report and Future Plans

ACTIVITY REPORT AND FUTURE PLANS

PREPARED IN JUNE 2014

Activity Report

June 2014

Introduction

Our Objectives

Suburban Hockey is now in its third year of operation. Our objectives have remained constant and our objectives for the third year were to:

Continue to deliver hockey to primary schools in the Kingston, Cheam and Elmbridge areas and expand into the Staines and Ashford areas. Target new schools with an increasing percentage of children from more deprived schools. Work closely with local sporting authorities and school games organisers to help them meet their target of attracting young people into sport. Develop relationships with at least one other region/hockey club to deliver hockey to schools in their locality. Bring children and their families into a local hockey club to build a continuing legacy for the sport and retain their participation in the sport. Create local leagues for the schools to encourage competitive participation. Research and apply for financial support from funds and grants to support the work of Suburban Hockey.

Our Achievements

This year we have again exceeded our expectations. We have: Coached in 53 schools (39 in previous year). Delivered hockey to 1,960 children (1,669 children last year). Delivered 1180.5 hours of coaching (561 hours of coaching last year). Worked in 9 boroughs (8 boroughs last year). We have raised a total of £42,050 from grants and trusts. This includes income from Surrey Hockey Association and the Big Lottery Fund. We have earned income of £21,662 from schools.

2013/14 Highlights

Once again, we have been keen to encourage schools to come to us for a first time and we were specifically targeting new schools with a higher rate of deprivation.

We have worked with a number of new schools in Staines on behalf of Staines Hockey Club and carried out a major project in the London Borough of Southwark in the summer term, where we coached in 20 schools, the majority of which were underprivileged.

Many of the schools in the Kingston and Elmbridge areas were “repeat business” for us, but we worked with different year groups to consolidate the development of hockey in those schools.

The introduction of centralised government grants ring fenced for PE and sport has meant that we have been able to increase the amount of coaching time delivered to many of the schools, thereby enabling those schools to introduce hockey into the school curriculum and expand the range of their year groups taking part. This has led to a number of schools using their grants to offer up to 18 weeks of hockey in their schools spread across three year groups. In such cases we have provided a free club activity to complement the curriculum hockey and included teacher development time.

We have worked closely with the School Games organiser for NE Surrey, organising a number of tournament for schools in the Spelthorne, Runnymede and Elmbridge areas. The school sports co-ordinator for Kingston has facilitated two tournaments for local schools for us at Tiffin Girls School and at Chessington Community College. We have also organised further tournaments open to all schools in the locality at Surbiton HC and at Staines HC.

Staines Hockey Club reports an increased interest in membership but will not know the full extent until September when the new season begins. 3 children have currently signed up. 65 children joined Surbiton HC as a result of our work in local schools.

We have hosted a local Beavers group (35 young players) to have a taster session at Surbiton HC, and we have funded a group of young players from Feltham Community College to spectate at the Investec London Cup.

We are working with England Hockey and are now part of a steering group putting a plan in place to support the development of hockey and accredit organisations such as Suburban Hockey as part of a coaching agency partnership.

By the end of 2013/14 season we have:

Secured funding from Enterprise Rent-a-Car for the second year for £1,750 for coaches clothing.

Secured funding of over £10,000 from Surrey Hockey Association as sponsorship for the Southwark project and for our other coaching activities.

Won a grant from the Big Lottery Fund for £8,262.

Raised £250 from the Waitrose Community Fund.

Secured a grant of £1,940 from Surrey Youth Focus Small Grants for equipment

Continued to provide a hockey coaching service to Tiffin Girls and Hinchley Wood schools on a paying basis to help us support other schools who will receive free coaching.

Continued paying the bursaries for 3 children at Surbiton HC, 2 at Cheam HC and offered one for Staines HC.

Added a number of new coaches to our team, including Patrick Smith, David Beckett and Sarah Haycroft - all GB squad members.

Main Project: Southwark Schools

In 2013/14 we identified an area with a large percentage of social deprivation to target for school hockey coaching. After securing some funding from the Big Lottery Fund and with funds from the Buffini Chao Foundations and sponsorship from Surrey Hockey Association, we were able to launch our summer term project in Southwark.

Over a 6 week period we targeted and coached in 20 schools, reaching almost 777 children and with 190 hours of coaching time. 10 coaches were used in the project as many schools required two coaches on site at the same time because of class numbers or behavioural problems. Each school was given a set of Quicksticks equipment for the duration of the programme and is able to keep that in return for a small donation to Suburban Hockey.

Our coaches included three GB players, one US player and a number of 1st XI players from Surbiton HC and Wimbledon HC.

We also instigated a programme of talks in the schools, either as a Q & A session or as an assembly. Paddy Smith prepared a video presentation for the children.

A tournament was organized at the GMH sports centre at the end of the coaching sessions. This was attended by 85 children. A masterclass with GB players was organized for the day following the tournament and was open to all the schools.

As a direct result of this programme we have been able to set up links with The Burgess Sports group, operating a number of sports activities in Burgess Park in SE5. During the summer we will be offering hockey coaching for three weeks in a multi sports activity camp.

In September we will be opening a brand new club, The Southwark Tigers Hockey Club, in Burgess Park. This club is badly needed as there are few opportunities in that area for young local children to join a hockey club and they need to be in an environment which is both local and familiar to them in order to attract them to the sport. A Suburban Hockey coach has been appointed to run this club and he will also be the person responsible for continuing coaching in the local schools to provide continuity for the children.

Report from the Director of Coaching

As ever we aim to develop our coaching quality, delivery and personnel. This year has seen SH more than double the amount of hours coached which means we have had to hire more qualified coaches. We have been lucky enough to obtain the services of many top quality players and coaches some of whom are playing currently at full international level. This has meant that the delivery of the sessions within many of the schools has been of exceptional quality. On the Southwark project alone we had 3 full internationals and 2 U21 internationals in the various schools. The programme was delivered with great enthusiasm and the feedback has been glowing from the schools involved.

The mission for SH remains consistent - to increase the participation in hockey. In the local boroughs of Elmbridge and Kingston there are now more children than ever before attending after school clubs and in turn attending sessions both at Surbiton Hockey Club, Old Cranleighans HC and the community session for all at Surbiton HC on Mondays.

One school alone in the Kingston Borough now has 4 Suburban Hockey clubs running, with 140 children on the register. This is a great example of what can be achieved in a small space of time and is proof that if both the coaches and the school are ambitious and passionate about the programme, then a hockey culture can be developed within state schools.

To further develop the Southwark project we are in the process of appointing a level 2 coach who is working towards his level 3. His job will be to take over the project from Ali Hitch and predominantly encourage kids to join Southwark Tigers Hockey Club, a new club created by us for this project and based at Burgess Park in Camberwell SE5. We also hope to get this coach involved in other matters regarding Suburban Hockey and its development in the more deprived areas. Again this is an extremely encouraging development and is a huge step in the right direction for what we are trying to achieve.

To further build on this success, are looking at the prospect of branching into the neighbouring borough of Lambeth. As well as the recruitment of the head coach for the Southwark Tigers we have recruited two more international players to work in the local areas and wherever they are needed to further the brand. One will have been to the Commonwealth Games with Wales and both will be great addition to the staff at SH.

Other aims in the local area for next year would be to replicate the success of Christchurch School at other schools such as St Matthews in the local Surbiton areas. In doing this it would then be a more realistic proposition to set up regular fixtures and a sustainable hockey relationship between the two schools. Currently Surbiton HC has gained about 65 members as a direct result of this programme in schools. I expect this figure to be significantly higher at the start of next season.

With increased funding the Southwark Project, in partnership with Southwark Tigers, could be a groundbreaking success in an area where the vast majority of children are deprived and have had their only taste of hockey provided by Suburban Hockey. Will Fulker

Considerations

When we drew up our targets for this year we were targeting an increased number of areas around the SW of London and Surrey. With the demand for more hours in a number of our schools as a result of the sports premium grants, we redrafted our objectives to ask those schools to pay for those hours, support them by offering a free club to complement the curriculum coaching time, and then provide teaching staff development training.

This meant that we were able to generate a little income to plough back into schools that were priority schools and we were able to divert a larger amount of our funds into the special project in Southwark.

We had also set ourselves the task of setting up and running local leagues for the schools. By mid-autumn term this was proving to be a very difficult task as the schools calendars for the primary school age groups did not appear to allow for flexibility to attend many matches and games.

This resulted in a change of direction for us on this objective and we ran a series of small, local tournaments for the children to provide the competitive environment. We aim to continue with this in the coming years.

Free School Meals – Our Measurement of Deprivation

As one of our objectives is to target children in schools from the more deprived areas and offer them the chance to learn to play hockey, we are measuring the levels of deprivation against the Department of Education’s statistics for Free School Meals.

We are aware that not all schools where we coached have high levels of deprivation, but we have been consistently targeting schools with a percentage for free or subsidised coaching, while we have worked with other schools that are perhaps less deprived, but we have expected them to pay for their coaching.

Our major project, the summer term Southwark schools coaching, specifically meets this criterion, although it is difficult to use the same measurements of free school meals as the London Borough of Southwark now offers free school meals to all children.

Extract from a report in the Guardian – 9/9/13. full report about free school meals here: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/sep/09/universal-free-school-meals- campaign

When Anne Stowell started as headteacher at Townsend primary school in south-east London she became concerned about what some children were bringing in for lunch: "In some cases it was just a packet of crisps or a piece of bread and butter. One child was bringing nothing – we realised the other children were giving her food."

It was a similar story at Surrey Square primary, also in the London borough of Southwark. "A couple of children brought a packet of biscuits," says the school business manager, Kelly Rowles. "One would eat half, and then give the other half to their brother. It was cheaper for their mum than to give them a sandwich and a drink."

The introduction of universal free school meals for primary children in Southwark – piloted with a small group of schools in early 2011 and phased in over a three-year period – has changed that. The majority of children now have school meals. Previously it was about half at Townsend, and just 30% at Surrey Square. And staff report better behaviour, concentration levels and attainment in pupils. "Having to sit and try and learn when all you can think about is how hungry you are must be really hard," says Rowles. "Our children are a lot happier and they're not hungry anymore."

Southwark is not the first London borough to invest in free lunches for children…..

Statistics about Southwark

Southwark has one of the highest rates of child poverty in London. It is the 9th most deprived borough in London (out of the 32 boroughs in the capital) and is one of the twenty most deprived boroughs nationally1. Particular issues that Southwark faces include disadvantage in income, housing crime and health. 61%of children are in low income families 37% of families have nobody in work 58% of the children in Southwark are from black and minority ethnic groups (this statistic may have increased since the last published report in 2009).

Graphs and Maps

Suburban Hockey Schools Coached in 2011-2012

Suburban Hockey Schools Coached in 2012-2013

Suburban Hockey Schools Coached in 2013-2014

Southwark schools coached in May/June 2014

Future Plans and Targets for 2014 onwards

In 2014/15 and on-going we need to increase the level of funding for Suburban Hockey. The concept which was created three years ago has proved to be very popular with local school, sports bodies and with hockey clubs. If we maintain the current income level we could deliver a similar programme of activity next year, or we can move to the next level, increase our funding and deliver an even better programme of activity in line with the demand that is out there. This year we have proved that we can offer some fantastic hockey opportunities for children in one of the country’s most deprived boroughs; there are other areas that could benefit in the same way. We want Suburban Hockey to reach those children and give them the opportunities.

In order to fulfil our objectives of targeting more children from the lower socio economic backgrounds we will need to:

Double the income from grants and funding Maintain the level of income from schools paying for hockey Increase the level of support from hockey clubs wishing to work in local schools

The key target areas for activity in 2014/15 are:

1. PE and Sports Grant From September 2013 all primary schools have been in receipt of a central government grant for PE and sport. This has now been extended and there is an increased focus on PE and sport in primary schools. We will continue our strategy to invite schools to spend a proportion of their budget on some curriculum coaching which we would deliver.

In return we are offering to run an after school or lunchtime club for them, to include them in local tournaments and build a link for them with their local hockey club. We also offer a session to teach the teachers how to coach hockey and provide assessment criteria and reports for the schools to use to report back regarding their grant expenditure. This is proving increasing popular with the schools and they are keen for us to develop this model for them.

2. Target schools with high levels of deprivation We will continue to target schools where children have a high level of deprivation and these schools will be priority schools where free hockey coaching is offered regardless of the school’s ability to pay.

3. Support local clubs We will continue to work with other local clubs requiring help in attracting school children in their vicinity into hockey. This will be hockey which is free to the school initially, with continued hockey being paid for by the school. The funding for the free sessions will come from the local clubs and from Surrey Hockey Association.

4. Secondary schools funding We are in receipt of a Sport England grant for £3,400 to offer coaching in 6 secondary schools in Elmbridge and Kingston boroughs for 14 – 16 year olds during the autumn term 2014. We will be targeting a number of local schools which meet our measurements of deprivation and we will therefore be required to teach In2Hockey in addition to Quicksticks. Equipment will be purchased for these sessions.

5. Southwark – continuation of school coaching and Southwark Tigers Hockey Club development We are aiming to repeat the Southwark schools project again during the next academic year, providing further coaching and set up competitive opportunities. In addition we will be working with the appointed coach to build membership at the brand new Southwark Tigers Hockey Club in Burgess Park. Additional opportunities will be sought to provide links for this club with either King’s and Alleyn’s Hockey Club or with Tulse Hill and Dulwich Hockey Club.

6. Lambeth – introduction of school coaching As a result of the success of the project in Southwark we have been able to identify a similar opportunity to develop hockey in the London Borough of Lambeth which has a similar demographic to Southwark. We would aim to offer free coaching in Lambeth schools and to develop a club in that area if the Southwark Tigers Hockey Club model is successful.