Bromley Primary School In Oval Debut!

Ahead of the England v New Zealand one-day international (ODI) at The Kia Oval last week and following a memorable summer of Ashes cricket, pupils from Warren Road Primary School in Orpington were guests at the iconic South London venue. While at the ground, they took part in a special Chance to Shine session. This was led by their local Kent Cricket coach, Iain Ager, who was assisted by former England Ashes and WT20 winner, Paul Collingwood, and Southern Vipers star, Rhianna Southby!

Unsurprisingly, research indicates that enjoyment is one of the biggest motivators for children and young people to be active. However, just under half of those who take part in regular exercise say they enjoy it. Consequently, Play Their Way aims to change this through transforming the way children are coached by prioritising fun, enjoyment and giving them a voice and choice on how they are coached.

At Kent, we are very proud to be a delivery partner of Chance To Shine and our child-first coaching champions every child’s voice, choice and journey. The positive results of this approach were very much in display at the Kia Oval!

As you can see in the gallery below, the future cricket stars of Warren Road Primary had a fantastic time. After learning good catching technique from Rhianna, they demonstrated their competitive spirit in the throwing games before designing their own activities to improve their catching; the fun and creative results amply demonstrating the great value in giving children ownership within their sessions.

But that wasn’t all…

The children then sat right by the ground, allowing them to watch the England men’s team take part in their final training session prior to taking on New Zealand! This led to much chanting, ecstatic faces and a lot of autographs being signed.

Big thanks must go to the players, in particular to Mark Wood and Jofra Archer, and of course the phenomenal children and staff from Warren Road.

Here’s a fantastic short video of the event and as can be seen, plenty of lifetime memories made!

If you want to find out more about Play Their Way or Chance To Shine, click on the links.

Gallery