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5th November 2023

Big response in schools to rugby teaching resources and competitions

The NLD Age Grade Team share the results of the RWC and WXV-linked teaching resources and competitions campaign.

The start of Autumn term saw us launch our resources and competitions linked to the Men’s World Cup and Women’s WXV tournaments. The plan was to promote a positive message about rugby in schools for children from primary school age and up to Year 8. The NLD Age grade Team was very pleased with the response from teachers and children.

There were nearly 700 instances of the online resources being accessed and lots of engagement with promotions on our website and on social media. If you consider average class sizes of 28 to 30 and consider the use of the resources on whole-school assemblies, 700 resources used by teachers means lots of children were engaged in rugby during both tournaments.

Rugby values poster competition was entered by Year 4, Wisteria class at Dunkirk Primary School, Nottingham

The resources and competitions were shared on our own website and nationally on the TES (Teachers’ Educational Supplement) website. They were also promoted by IAPS (Independent Schools organisation) and the RFU, as well as other rugby regions.  An overview of the resources and competitions can be seen here.

At the time of writing the NLD Age Grade Team are contacting schools to inform them about the competition winners.

There are lots of runners up prizes so we hope there will be many happy children on receipt of their good news!

Subject to school and parental permissions, winners will be announced on the website in the next fortnight.

Resources and competitions were created by Chris Prescott and Tim Wilbraham. Chris is a teacher at Leicester Grammar School and creator the teachers’ site https://www.facebook.com/PrepSchTeacher/.  Tim is also a teacher, and he leads the NLD Age Grade Team.

The competitions and prizes were:

Design poster or 30 second video advertisement on a World Cup theme that links to the core values of rugby.
We are very grateful to the RFU Schools and Colleges team and Gallagher Insurance for their support for this competition.

  • First prize is free tickets to a 6 Nations match at Twickenham
  • Runners up prizes include tickets to Gallagher Premiership matches

Design a rugby shirt front on a World Cup theme that links to the core values of rugby.
We are very grateful to PlayerLayer for their support for this competition.

  • The winning design will be printed on a set of sublimated PlayerLayer shirts and presented to the star designer and their team
  • There will also be runners up prizes of sports bags from PlayerLayer.

Prepare an interview for England and Loughborough Lightning star, Sadia Kabeya.

  • Sadia Kabeya will be visiting the winner’s classroom on Friday 17 November
  • There will also be the offer of a class trip to the World Rugby museum at Twickenham.

Free rugby ball to children who persuaded their teacher to use our resources.
We are very grateful to the RFU Schools and Colleges team for their support for this promotion

  • We posted balls to several schools, who wrote to tell us that excited children had urged them to use our resources in their assemblies and lessons.

There are also lots of rugby items that we will send to runners up of all for of our competitions.