Trent College: U10 Cricket Festival 2024
Our U10 Cricket Festival provides the opportunity for pupils from local state primary schools to play cricket in a fun and friendly festival.
Upfront coaching was provided for all Year 5 children in their own primary schools. The coaching sessions took place over 2 months and were run by qualified cricket coaches. They were for class groups of up to 30 children at a time, teaching key batting, bowling and fielding skills.
A squad of 10 Year 5 pupils from each school were then invited to join us for the festival. They spent a morning here, playing a series of short matches against other primary schools, whilst showcasing all that they had learnt, having fun and enjoying cricket.
Aims
The aim of the project was to provide an opportunity for Year 5 children in the local community to have access to qualified cricket coaching and to play cricket in a competitive festival against other primary school children.
We would like to inspire and motivate them to either continue or to start playing cricket in their local clubs or their own schools.
The need was to provide exposure to a Kwik-cricket festival, following Ten10 rules, where the children could have fun and enjoy playing cricket, with professional cricket coaches to advise and support their game and development.
Critical to the success was that 480 children in our local community received an hour of professional cricket coaching, and that 80 of them joined us for the cricket festival.
Background
The project was initiated by our Head of Cricket who wanted to develop and encourage sport and the opportunity to play cricket for young people.
The schools involved were identified through the External School Liaison Manager and her relationship with the teachers and head teachers of our local primary schools.
We first held the festival in 2017 and it has run annually, with the exception of Covid restrictions in 2021.
Resources
14 hours of free cricket coaching by qualified coaches has been provided to 480 Year 5 children in the partner primary schools that were playing in the festival.
Trent College sport's ground was used all morning to host the festival.
Our Director of Sport ran the event, supported by three non-teaching members of staff. There was a paid professional cricket coaches to assist all morning.
Refreshments were provided for 80 pupils, 16 staff and 44 visiting parents. A packed lunch was provided for the 80 pupils and 16 staff.
The Estates and Catering team were available all morning to support the event.
The event ran for 4.5 hours and took 3 preparation days.
Impact
"We are members of the Erewash Sports Partnership and go to tournaments that they arrange but out of all the events we do over the year, your netball and cricket events are by far the best – in terms of organisation and running. The children absolutely love coming here and it always has such a professional feel and is so well-organised." Sports Lead, Grange Primary School
"Paul was fantastic, again. He had our most challenging year group and kept them all engaged and focussed with the session. He was really enthusiastic and had a great knowledge of how to deliver a session to children of all abilities." Year 5 teacher, Heymann Primary School
"The coach was encouraging and made the activities fun. The children responded with good participation during the warm-up game and the more structured bowling activity, where they tried to apply the technique, the coach had demonstrated. There were plenty of stations set up, so the children didn't have to wait long for their turn, which kept them engaged." Year 5 teacher, Orchard Community Primary School
"I don’t think it can be topped, all staff and children came back extremely positive about the festival and have enjoyed competing against other school in a fantastic competition. Thank you for having us!" Sport lead, Harrington Junior School
Feedback is collected from all schools that participated in the festival, asking for pupil and teacher views.
Pupil Involvement
480 mixed Year 5 children, aged 9-10, received a 1-hour cricket coaching session from a qualified cricket coach in their primary school.
80 mixed Year 5 children from external primary schools visited to take part in the U10 Cricket Festival, spending 4.5 hours at Trent College.
8 Year 8 Trent students supported the event by umpiring and scoring.
Frequency
This is an annual event and is in it's 7th year of running.
