Disappointed but not disheartened!

The final score may have been 9 - 1 to Cantelowes but the brand new ReachOut FC U12s girls team were in high spirits after scoring their first goal in a competitive match and playing the game of their lives!

This year the ReachOut! Academy has started a new girls football project for girls in Y6 and Y7. Every Monday the girls attend football coaching followed by an academic session where they get help with homework, maths and English from volunteer mentors. On the weekend they play in the Capital Girls League against other teams from around London.

It’s been a slow start to the season, losing a couple of games to nil (and one 5 – 1 thanks to an own goal by the opposition!) but the commitment and determination shown by the girls has impressed referees and opposition mangers. Their spatial awareness and understanding of the game has improved massively, as have their fitness levels.

It was a tough match on Saturday against Cantelowes, one of the best teams in the league according to the referee, and at half time the score was 7 – 1, but the girls’ heads never went down and they battled on through the second half chasing down every ball and keeping the second half score to 2 – 0. A great achievement considering their stand in "manager" (yours truly) knows next to nothing about football!

Well done to them all!

By Fran Blackwell

ReachOut! Academy Volunteer of the Week - Arrigo Beino

Arrigo Beino

Arrigo Beino is the most positive, resilient and affable person I’ve ever met. Arrigo has been working with the Year 8 group for the past eighteen months. As some of you know this is a challenging group. Arrigo coached this group the whole of last year, which involved taking football sessions with them on a Monday and giving up his Sundays as he took them to matches on Wanstead Flats.

This year Arrigo manages the Under 14s B team, coaching them on a Tuesday and taking them to matches on Saturday at Hackney Marshes. He also attends Under 14s A matches when Pete needs the extra support.

Arrigo does not let things phase him. After an incident with two pupils on Tuesday he got the rest of the group settled and carried on with the session. He’s always smiling and has more staying power than Occupy London.

Mille grazie Arrigo!

ReachOut! Academy Volunteer of the Week - Kavita Choitram

Kavita Choitram

Kavita has spent two weeks climbing Mount Kilamanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, and instead of deservedly resting up in the evenings she came to the ReachOut! Academy and on her return was Supermentor, helping several mentees understand quadratic functions!

Good work Kavita!

ReachOut! Academy Volunteer of the Week - Georgie Simmonds

Georgie Simmonds

Not only because of the staying power (one of ReachOut!'s core values!) Georgie illustrated when her bag disintegrated due to the weight of her law notes, but because of her expertise in quadratic functions, managing to get masses of young people through the equations!

Georgie has been an amazing volunteer for ReachOut!, starting half way through last year’s project, she has built a great relationship with her mentee, who always makes a B-line for her in the mentoring sessions and who in fact often asks about Georgie on the weekends.

Well done and thanks Georgie!

Y11s on the ReachOut! Academy

A couple of Y11s (preferring to remain anonymous) finished their work early at the ReachOut! Academy last night so I asked them to jot down a couple of lines about why they come to the project. As promised, I have posted their thoughts below…

“We are 15 year old students that go to The Petchey Academy. Our favourite sport is football. And we are very social.

We heard about the ReachOut! Academy as our friends told us about it. We come to play football but also they help us with out English and Maths work and homework.

We come to ReachOut! because it keeps us off the streets, most of our friends come and we enjoy playing football. They help us with work to help our grades which is amazing and it’s helped us a lot in school.”

Thanks to both of them for their comments!