Posted: 04/12/15
Futsal and fitness for youngsters
Coaching and fitness students at West Nottinghamshire College have been helping schoolchildren to put their best foot forward during a schools’ county futsal competition.
Last week (25 November) saw the final match played between Year 5 and 6 pupils from St Philip Neri Primary School and Forest Town Primary School in Mansfield after three weeks of training and games together with children from St Peter’s CofE Primary School, at the college’s sports hall at its Derby Road campus.
The score was 3-3 after full-time, seeing St Philips ‘A’ winning 3-2 following a penalty shoot-out.
Students from the Level 3 Sports Development Coaching and Fitness programme delivered futsal games to almost 30 pupils as part of their ‘organising sports events’ module. It saw class members take on the roles of team leader, referees, administrators, stewards, fixtures secretary and publicity officer to ensure the smooth running of the games.
Students acting as referees gained specialist referee training from Marc Birkett, who is The Nottinghamshire Football Association’s referee development officer. Meanwhile, the students on the administration side, liaised with local schools to set up the futsal competitions.
Sport science tutor Helen Norris said: “The students worked incredibly hard to set up the games, communicating professionally with the schools to market the competition, and putting their new skills into practice to cover everything from risk assessing the games environment to refereeing fairly.
“The children engaged so well with each other and the students showed new confidence interacting with this young audience. They impressed the Mansfield school games organiser so much that they’ve been offered work experience and volunteering opportunities in the future.
