TEACHER TRAINING AND RESOURCES
It’s not just the children who get the opportunity to learn more about cricket, we also encourage their teachers to get involved. Many teachers tell us they see cricket as an intimidating sport and have avoided teaching it as a result. Our coaches deliver informal training to the teachers so that, once the six-week period has ended, they too feel more confident with the sport and are able to build a sustainable culture of cricket within their school. The SCDFIl’s Portal is a bank of free digital resources for teachers that gives them lesson plans, instructional videos and top tips from indian cricketers to coach their own sessions
CRICKET IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Every year, we visit over 4,000 state primary schools to deliver cricket coaching. Typically over a half-term, our qualified coaches teach pupils key cricket, physical and life skills. Each session is adapted to the needs of the children to help them become confident cricketers. In many cases pupils are being introduced to the game for the first time. We have placed a particular focus on providing opportunities to those young people who need them most, working with primary schools with a higher than national average proportion of pupils receiving free school meals.
CRICKET IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Our delivery in state secondary schools focuses on developing the leadership skills of young people aged 11-16, specifically in the areas of creativity, confidence, adaptability and resilience. Our coaches bring these skills to life in one-off taster sessions and/or in a dedicated leadership programme, typically over a half-term. The programme has a specific focus on supporting schools in areas where cricket has a limited footprint. You can read an independent evaluation of our secondary school programme here.
COMPETITION
In primary school, we encourage schools to take part in local and regional competitions to give their pupils the experiences that come with testing themselves in that environment. Chance to Compete is our national secondary school competition aimed at giving secondary state school children an opportunity to play competitive cricket. Matches are played in under an hour and all participants play a significant part in the game. The format and rules are adapted so as to remove many of the traditional barriers to schools being unable to play competitive cricket, albeit without veering too far from the fundamentals of a game of cricket. There are formats and rules related to indoor and outdoor cricket across all year groups, however we run flagship competitions to regional level at U13s & U15s (for girls’ and mixed teams). To find out more about taking part in Chance to Compete, please contact your local county cricket board.