Falkirk Community Trust
Following a period where Falkirk Community Trust lacked a Rugby Development Officer there was something of a dip in schools rugby in the area overall. Following the appointment of a new DO, in the past school year we have made good strides in developing rugby in the area, with 45 of 50 primary schools having partaken in rugby this year. All eight high schools have, this season, fielded teams in competitions to one degree or another.
The challenge now is to continue to build on this work. There have been two excellent young people working to develop rugby this year as they have worked to complete their Modern Apprenticeship with Scottish Rugby and with a number of very capable applicants for next year; we have secured five Modern Apprenticeships to further support the schools, both secondary and primary.
Key achievements from this year and going forward include:
Eight from eight High Schools have taken part in some form of competition / participation event this season. Next season we aim to provide them with additional coaching services in order to allow regular competition and participation across all schools.
Four of our High Schools currently have rugby as part of their curriculum timetable and we are working hard with the other four schools in the hope of delivering curriculum rugby elements in the next year.
A Barbarians team was created that allowed one of the high schools that had never previously been involved to participate at both U16 & U18 level with a majority of new players playing, which eventually resulted in the U16s Barbarians winning the Central Brewin Dolphin Bowl. Next season we aim to expand this to support those schools who took part last year in putting out stand alone teams for fixtures and bringing together those schools who competed last year in 7s rugby but currently lack the critical mass to put out full teams, thus hopefully giving them the same burst in interest as the schools that took part last year experienced.
Forty-four of fifty primary schools took part in some form of rugby this year, ranging from one off taster sessions and health weeks, to four to six week curricular blocks on introduction to touch rugby, culminating in a district wide festival as well as the highest up take ever of rugby in the Falkirk end of year P7 games. Our higher end of service has provided after school classes in contact rugby, which lead to participation in the inaugural Central Schools Primary 6/7 Tournament for two of our schools. Next season we aim to provide a more structured festival and tournament format which will be cluster based and allow schools greater participation opportunities and build our contact rugby primary programme allowing for greater transition to the local rugby clubs.
We had the opportunity to work with Carrongrange School - Additional Support Needs this past season with great success. Next season in conjunction with Trust Rugby International we intend to expand this by putting a Unified rugby team out and giving these youngsters a chance to be a part of something they have never experienced before.
We greatly appreciate the support from Friends of Scottish Rugby; we have had a great season and look forward to an even greater future.
Stewart Milne
Rugby Development Officer: Falkirk Community Trust
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Falkirk RFC