It’s not every day that schoolchildren get the chance to be taught by an England international but that’s what happened to pupils at Chandlers Ridge Primary in Middlesbrough.
Chandlers Ridge Primary School in Middlesbrough got Schools’ Football Week 2022 off to the best possible start on Monday 7th February with a visit from ex England International Marrie Wieczorek. Marrie was the first women born in Middlesbrough to play for her country and managed the Middlesbrough ladies team for over 20 years after her playing career.
Marrie attended the school ahead of the Lionesses’ fixture against the current Olympic Champions, Canada in the Arnold Clark Cup which is due to be played at the Riverside Stadium on 17th February. She took the pupils through a training session, testing their skills and then talked to the students about the progress of the women’s game and the amazing opportunity to watch the current stars of the game at their local ground.
Marrie said, “There are so many opportunities now, for boys and girls. They can now look to the current stars and genuinely think, “that might be me in 10-15 years’ time.” The girls especially can go to the Riverside and watch England next week knowing there is a pathway.”
Over 130,000 school children will be participating in activity during Schools’ Football Week, in association with Haier. The overall focus of the week is to introduce additional football activity into schools, whether on the field or in the classroom. However, with the ESFA reaching record levels of Girls’ National Cup entries for 21/22, the upcoming Women’s EUROs and the Arnold Clark Cup, it felt like the perfect opportunity to hone in on girls’ activity for 2022. As a result, the ESFA has registered activity taking part in Schools in England between the 7th – 13th February for over 57,000 girls.
Opportunities such as this to meet inspirational players like Marrie and to watch the current England Team compete in the Arnold Clark Cup helps to celebrate girls’ activity in schools and inspire more girls to take part moving forward.
More information on the Arnold Clarke Cup and some great offers on group booking prices can be found here.
The National Governing Body for Schools’ Football in England.