SEN and Disengaged Children

Teachers can also use the ethos of rugby to run sessions to educate people about healthy lifestyles. Project ideas include:

• Promoting fitness through rugby using both practical and discussion exercises.
• Raising awareness of the negative impact of drugs and alcohol.
• Show disengaged students how rugby can benefit their health and social life at a local club.

Pupil Referral Units

In recent years, the RFU has worked in partnership with a number of national and local organisations to engage young people through rugby union. This includes successes with some of the most disengaged young people in society. Schools can see how they too could utilise rugby union with their most challenging students in the following projects:

Barclays Fair Play

Run with the Enterprise Education Trust the project used rugby to successfully engage children in over 80 Pupil Referral Units. This combined rugby with a fully interactive, classroom based curriculum of life, enterprise and financial skills and helped build skills, confidence and aspiration in the students.

Hitz

In London, the Hitz project run in partnership with the Premiership Rugby Clubs, Metropolitan Police, Active Communities Network and Wooden Spoon charity also demonstrates the impact rugby can have on young people’s lives.

MLD Tag Rugby (Moderate Learning Difficulties)

Schools can deliver rugby union for all abilities and help young people to get involved in the sport on a long-term basis. The sport is a great engagement tool for mixed ability groups and appeals to both special schools and mainstream schools due to the social and teamworking values involved.