Community Rugby Coach

• The club appointed our own part time CRC who started in February. His efforts will initially be focussed on primary schools in order to generate an interest in and enthusiasm for the game. There is a large ethnic minority in Hounslow (35%) which is predicted to rise to 50% by 2012 and rugby is simply not part of their cultural background. If we can generate an interest for both girls and boys when the pupils move into their senior education the borough’s secondary schools the youngsters should already have core basic skills in place to build on and develop.
• Need to ensure the post is maintained for as Grasshoppers and Sport England support lasts 3 years.

Primary Schools

• Our CRC delivered coaching to 25 primary schools in Hounslow linked to the Isleworth & Syon Schools Sports Partnership. Each school received 5 sessions in preparation for the Hounslow Primary Schools TAG Festival hosted by Grasshoppers in May. This initiative was in partnership with I&S school and there were 32 teams in the festival and 400 children playing rugby.
• We hosted the Ealing TAG Festival on 24th May and the same numbers of pupils were involved.
• We are organising some further coaching in Ealing schools in June/July and primary schools linked to Heston High School as well. The Ealing schools all fall in Grasshoppers catchment area and several in the Southall area tend to be overlooked by clubs community initiatives.
• On the back of the Rugby World Cup in September/October Grasshoppers will be organising/hosting another primary schools TAG Festival (9 October) using the world cup as its theme. Schools will represent the 20 countries in the world cup and we will incorporate some curriculum work for them as well. Each school will be asked to learn about the country and bring a mascot to the Festival. There will be a prize for the best mascot. Having done the research schools will also be invited to prepare a collage on their adopted country and these will be displayed at the Civic Centre. Our CRC will be going into these schools to provide coaching ahead of the tournament.
• The Hounslow TAG Festival is now an established annual event and helps provide a valuable link to Hounslow’s primary schools and provides us with an excellent opportunity to establish school/club links.
• Grasshoppers provide facilities to help Hounslow prepare their squads for inter borough youth tournament and London Youth Games as well as coaching their TAG rugby squads.

Secondary Schools

• Working in partnership with the RFU we have had a coach involved with 6 Hounslow secondary schools and hosted coaching sessions at Grasshoppers for 4 of them culminating in a mini league tournament for both Y7 and Y9’s. (Cranford, Gunnersbury, Heathland, St. Mark’s) Heston and Chiswick have also received coaching. We are looking to build on this and meet with teachers shortly to discuss establishing a league for secondary schools across as many age groups as possible, 7/10 a-side festivals, coaching courses for 6th form students, coaching and refereeing courses for teachers and for Grasshoppers and the RFU to be an integral part of this initiative by hosting games and providing coaching sessions.
• Enterprise Day for 8/10 Hounslow schools involving physical/sporting activities, quiz and making a presentation to a panel about promoting rugby.

Girls Rugby

• In partnership with the RFU we have coaches in 5 secondary schools in Hounslow and hosted a Girls U14 TAG Festival on 27 April with 9 teams playing. Another festival is being organised for 12 June to round off the coaching.
• Girls U15 World Cup TAG Festival being organised for October.
• Actively involved with Middlesex RFU to promote girls rugby in the county.

Go Rugby

• This is a recruitment initiative aimed at adults using the spin off and advertising from the Rugby World Cup. Grasshoppers has been nominated as one of the clubs to take part in the initiative. In the throes of seeing if the RFU Go Rugby promotion team can take space for a day in Sky, GSK and other large corporates to generate interest.

Charity links

• Linked to The Mulberry Centre, a cancer information charity based at West Middlesex Hospital and club hosts various functions to help raise funds. • Corporate World Cup Festival TAG being organised for September to raise funds for the charity.

Seal of Approval

• In addition to the Middlesex County RFU Seal of Approval we have just been awarded the RFU’s Seal of Approval

Access Sport

We have been selected to become one of Access Sports new partners whose main aim is to make sport accessible for all.