ACTIVITY REPORT AND FUTURE PLANS PREPARED IN JUNE 2014 1 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: ñ Continue to deliver hockey to primary schools in the Kingston, Cheam and Elmbridge areas and expand into the Staines and Ashford areas. ñ Target new schools with an increasing percentage of children from more deprived schools. ñ Work closely with local sporting authorities and school games organisers to help them meet their target of attracting young people into sport. ñ Develop relationships with at least one other region/hockey club to deliver hockey to schools in their locality. ñ 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. ñ Create local leagues for the schools to encourage competitive participation. ñ 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: ñ Coached in 53 schools (39 in previous year). ñ Delivered hockey to 1,960 children (1,669 children last year). ñ Delivered 1180.5 hours of coaching (561 hours of coaching last year). ñ Worked in 9 boroughs (8 boroughs last year). ñ We have raised a total of £42,050 from grants and trusts. This includes income from Surrey Hockey Association and the Big Lottery Fund. ñ We have earned income of £21,662 from schools. 2 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. 3 By the end of 2013/14 season we have: ñ Secured funding from Enterprise Rent-a-Car for the second year for £1,750 for coaches clothing. ñ Secured funding of over £10,000 from Surrey Hockey Association as sponsorship for the Southwark project and for our other coaching activities. ñ Won a grant from the Big Lottery Fund for £8,262. ñ Raised £250 from the Waitrose Community Fund. ñ Secured a grant of £1,940 from Surrey Youth Focus Small Grants for equipment ñ 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. ñ Continued paying the bursaries for 3 children at Surbiton HC, 2 at Cheam HC and offered one for Staines HC. ñ Added a number of new coaches to our team, including Patrick Smith, David Beckett and Sarah Haycroft - all GB squad members. 4 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. 5 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.