Llangatwg Community School During our week in International Camp, we decided to develop an opportunity for more girls at school to become involved in football and more importantly, to be able to play football with the boys and prove just how talented they are.

First steps Our first step was to give an assembly for pupils in Year 7 (first year), We invited in a former pupil of the school who is a very successful female footballer. Here is the presentation she gave to the pupils.

About Me  Kirsty O’Donnell  18  Crynant  Footballer for Cardiff City & Wales Under 19’s  Qualified football coach & fitness instructor  I’m a football coach at Reeco’s Soccer School  Ex Swansea City Pre Academy Under 6 & 7 Football Coach  Ex-pupil at Llangatwg Community School (2007 – 2012)  Current Student at NPTC College – Studying  Sports Coaching & Fitness - Btec Sport ( )  Sports Therapy ( )

Clubs I’ve Played For In The Past  Resolven RFC Boys ( )  Margam Under 12’s & 14’s ( )  Cardiff City Development ( ) (West Brom, Tottenham Hotspurs, Blackburn Rovers)  Swansea City Development ( ) (Bristol City, Cardiff City, Swindon Town)  Pontardawe Town Juniors Under 16’s ( )  Swansea City Ladies FC ( )  Cardiff City Women FC (2014-Present)

Wales Under 16’s How many caps have I got?  8 Who have I played against?  Northern Ireland x2  Republic of Ireland x2 (Scored 1 goal)  Scotland x2  Finland x2 (Scored 1 goal) Where have the games been played?  Wales  Scotland (Celtic Nations)

Wales Under 17’s How many caps have I got?  4 Who have I played against?  Poland  Lithuania  Azerbaijan  Fareo Islands Where have the games been played?  Wales  Lithuania (UEFA Championships Tournament)

Wales Under 19’s How many caps have I got?  2 Who have I played against?  Austria  Turkey Where have these games been played?  Austria  Turkey (UEFA Championships Tournament - Turkey, Kazakhstan & Italy were in our group)

Boys & Girls Club Of Wales  I was a member for 8 years & I was captain for 5 years. How many caps have I got?  Officially 3 Caps (Ireland - Rose Bowl Championship)  Unofficially there's too many to name! Who have I played against Officially?  Boys & Girls Club Of England  Boys & Girls Club Of Scotland (Scored 1 goal)  Boys & Girls Club Of Ireland

Welsh Colleges Who have I played against?  RAF x2  Australian Colleges  English Colleges x3 (Scored 1 goal)  Bristol Academy

Welsh Premier League  Highest league in Wales (Founded 2009).  The league winners get £8,000 & an automatic place in the Women's UEFA Champions League.  Automatically entered into the League Cup & FAW Women's Cup.  No Wages (Amateurs)!  No TV Coverage!

Teams in the WWPL

Women's Super League  Highest league in England  Summer League The season begins on 30th March and will end on 12th October  All clubs are paid £70,000 per season From a Club Development Fund should limit any financial "imbalance" between clubs. [ [  Limited Wages Some clubs you get paid but limited amounts – Semi-professional / Professional.  Limited TV Coverage on BT Sport

Teams In The WSL 1

Successful Women Footballers  Jayne Ludlow – Current Wales Manager Ex-Player & Captain for Arsenal & Wales  Jess Fishlock – Wales (Captain) & Seattle Reign FC Loan Spells at - FFC Frankfurt, Cardiff City Ladies, Bristol Academy, Glasgow City, Melbourne Victory  Kelly Smith – England & Arsenal Ladies New Jersey Lady Stallions, Philadelphia Charge, New Jersey Wildcats, Boston Breakers  Hope Solo – USA & Seattle Reign FC Washington Huskies, Atlanta Beat, Seattle Sounders  Abby Wambach – USA & Western New York Flash World Record Holder goals in 226 apps for USA

The Down Side Of Women's Football  More Funding (Money) is needed (Kits, Player Development (Grassroots), Sponsorship)  More Media is needed ( TV Coverage, Newspapers, Social Networks)  To be a top professional footballer you have to go overseas! USA, Australia, France Club's annual wage bills in the Women’s Super League will be approximately one-tenth of those in the American  Wages are much lower than men!!! (Average of under £20,000 a year plus a part time job coaching or teaching in the academies)  In April 2012 the FA made a new rule Allowing only 4 players to earn £20,000 plus

Reaction Our year 7 pupils were fascinated by this presentation and we found that they were very keen to get involved in some football sessions at lunchtimes in school.

Football sessions for all We were delighted to see that during our first lunchtime session, lots of pupils turned up (despite the awful rain!) and there were more girls than boys! The pupils enjoyed some fun activities followed by a mini game refereed by the pupils who went to International camp.

Success! Each week, more and more pupils turned up and our sports teacher, Miss. Paddisson noticed an increase in the numbers of girls wanting to play football in lessons and for the school teams. We noticed older girls who already played football for the team came along too to encourage the younger ones.

Rewards Pupils were rewarded for attending the sessions by being allowed an early lunch pass and in each session there was a prize for “woman” and “man” of the match.

The way forward We have offered our help to our school sports coaches so that we can continue to encourage as many girls as possible to be involved in sports that would normally be associated more with boys.

We were really interested by the launch of the “This girl can “ campaign which supports everything we have been trying to achieve in or gender equality project. Check out the link, it’s a great thing to share with pupils in your schools.