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The countdown is on to first episode of The Wandsworth Way airing
The countdown is on to first episode of The Wandsworth Way airing

Southfields Academy Student Reporting

GB Hockey Player Visits Southfields Academy to Boost Inclusive Sports Kit

- Written by the students of 08S-EN1  

- Sub-Editor: Audrey Tinline, BBC & Financial Times Journalist  

 

Southfields Academy played host to GB hockey player Tess Howard as part of her campaign to make sports kit more inclusive. Students arrived at the astroturf early in the morning on a sunny day at the end of April to meet Tess and take part in a hockey coaching session. 

Tess, who has been capped for England’s hockey team 27 times so far, told the students that the type of sports kit available, especially for young women, should not be a barrier to taking part in sport and enjoying games.  

She said: ‘sport is the place you can be free, so you should wear something you feel free in.’ Tess has successfully pushed for female players to have a choice to wear skorts or shorts while playing hockey, after research she conducted showed that many women and girls stop playing sport due to issues with clothing.

She was at Southfields Academy to highlight her ‘Inclusive Sportswear’ campaign, which aims to make sure young people feel confident in their PE kit and continue to play sport. And she was celebrating an award of a £10,000 ChangeMakers grant to boost the campaign. Tess is planning to use the money to help her build the Inclusive Sportswear Community Platform, providing free guidance and support to schools across the UK to implement inclusive PE kit policies. 

While at Southfields Academy, as well as giving students some top hockey tips, Tess told them that she would like to see schools changing their rules on kit in general. She said that schools with gendered sports uniforms can impact people’s confidence and body image, leading to higher dropout rates from sports. She would like to change kits as sexualised uniforms can make girls and young women feel uncomfortable.  

ChangeMakers is a partnership between Allwyn (which operates the National Lottery), UK Sport, Team GB and ParalympicsGB.

Podcasting Workshop Report

As part of Wandsworth’s London Borough of Culture celebrations, we were fortunate to host a special event for all of Y8 at Southfields Academy, all about podcasting. With Audrey Tinline, journalist for the BBC and Financial Times, our English Class worked together to develop interview questions alongside our teacher, Ms Sulliman.

The event centred around the media industry and specifically, podcasting. It featured an inspiring panel: Leanne Alie, host of the Coiled podcast; Sandy Warr, presenter at LBC and lecturer at City University, London; and Carrie Wootten, co-founder of the Global Media and Entertainment Talent Manifesto, who also hosted the event.

I had the amazing opportunity to go on stage with three other students from my English class and interview Leanne and Sandy. At first, I’ll be honest—I was nervous about speaking in front of my entire year group. But once we got started, I eased into it.  At the end of the assembly, we were able to record our own podcast with Audrey, who is going to edit it for us and bring to our next English lesson. 

Talking to them today was a fantastic experience that really made me reflect on my future. It opened my eyes to the many paths available in media and communications, and encouraged me to think about the skills I want to develop going forward!

-Nathaniel, year 8