Two Coventry schools get an Aviva Finals Day to remember thanks to Wasps programmes

A group of Coventry schoolchildren took to the field in front of a capacity crowd at Twickenham to show off their rugby skills.

Pupils from Moseley Primary School and St Laurence’s Church of England Primary School each took part in a game of tag rugby before and during half time of Wasps’ play off final defeat to Exeter Chiefs.

They were joined by primary schools from around the country who were representing the 11 other Aviva Premiership clubs, and also helped to form a guard of honour as both teams ran out on to the pitch.

The two schools were drawn out of a hat to represent the region after participating in community programmes funded by the Aviva Premiership, which have been delivered on behalf of Wasps by Engage! Coventry to 26 schools over the past year.

These programmes include Aviva Tackling Numbers which uses rugby to develop children’s confidence with numeracy skills, while Something to Chew On encourages pupils to have a healthy lifestyle through lessons around nutrition, food preparation and hygiene.

Tom Clift is Programme Manager at Engage!, Coventry Sports Foundation’s values based education programme designed to improve children’s understanding of the core values of rugby – and accompanied the pupils down to Twickenham. He said:

The childrens’ faces lit up from the moment their school was drawn out of the hat.

Although the day didn’t end with the score that we all wanted, the day out was a roaring success and one that will live in all of their memories for a long time, and will hopefully inspire some of the youngsters to take up rugby as a sport outside of school.

Providing opportunities like this for young people are fantastic because they are so hard to come by, and it enables them to show their friends, family and the wider public what they have learned over the past school term.

There is as real appetite for the game in the city now, and over the next few months we’ll be delivering our Engage Values Extra Time Programme so that more youngsters can get involved in rugby outside of school and develop their personal and physical skill set.

For more information about the eight week Engage Values Extra Time Programme email rhye.parry@engagecoventry.com