Mini Refs Course
We were delighted to welcome Shane Lebbon from Prestige Sports to spend the day with a group of our year 5 and 6 children. Shane's job...to provide Mini Referee training which involved teaching the essential skills required to be a football referee as well as gaining a solid understanding of the laws of the game.
The day started with a classroom based session before the children headed out to the playground where they took part in a number of activities designed to question safety and space, fairness, unnecessary whistle blowing reducing game flow, use of positive communication and ensuring explanations are given when the whistle is used. After a break for lunch, Shane developed children's knowledge and understanding of the hand signals in a refs tool box!
Finally, it was a chance for each of the refs in training to put their skills into practice as they took on the challenge of refereeing some small sided games. Shane offered invaluable feedback and the refs were given the opportunity to share what they thought went well and which areas of the leadership role they need to develop further.
We are extremely proud of the way the children conducted themselves over the course of the day and look forward to supporting them in their new leadership roles in January where they will get the opportunity to referee intra school lunchtime football matches.