The Charter Standard for Schools programme is a kite marking scheme that recognises schools that use football for boys and girls, both in and outside of school hours.
Beacon Hill’s work and commitment to football development drew special recognition from Cumberland FA’s awards panel.
For the third year, the school have delivered a Junior Football Organisers course for its pupils. The course is for 14-16 year olds, and aims to give the young leaders an insight into football coaching, refereeing and event organisation.
As well as the course, the school has also offered its young leaders the chance to put into practice what they have learnt by not only organising a football festival for the local primary schools, but also by delivering a regular after schools coaching session where leaders ran football sessions for some local primary school kids.
The school have also led the way in the implementation of a new version of 5’as’side called Futsal. The game, which is the only format of Small Sided Football that is recognised and supported by FIFA and UEFA, is played on a slightly larger pitch with hockey goals and a smaller, heavier ball.
The game itself places considerable demand upon technique, movement, tactical awareness and fitness and has helped influence the early stages of technical development of players such as Ronaldinho, Robinho and Ronaldo
This year the school took part in Cumberland FA’s Futsal pilot scheme, which ran in the west of the county. The scheme saw pupils from Year 7 receive a number of free coaching sessions, which lead up to a small competition. Due to the success of the pilot, the school then decided to offer the game to all its pupils as both an in house competition and as a breakfast club.
Football Development Officer for Cumberland FA, Ben Snowdon, praised the school for their work saying “that during my time with Cumberland FA the Beacon Hill School really have been a key partner within our education programme. This award will only go some way in providing the school, its PE department and pupils with the recognition they so richly deserve.”