Each year we help hundreds of thousands of pupils to play cricket and ensure that they learn academic and life skills whilst they take part.
Every year, we visit over 4,000 state primary schools to deliver cricket coaching. Typically over a half-term, our qualified coaches teach pupils key cricket, physical and life skills. Each session is adapted to the needs of the children to help them become confident cricketers. In many cases pupils are being introduced to the game for the first time.
We have placed a particular focus on providing opportunities to those young people who need them most, working with primary schools with a higher than national average proportion of pupils receiving free school meals.
Every year, we visit over 4,000 state primary schools to deliver cricket coaching. Typically over the a half-term, our qualified coaches teach pupils key cricket, physical and life skills. Each session is adapted to the needs of the children to help them become confident cricketers. In many cases pupils are being introduced to the game for the first time.
We have placed a particular focus on providing opportunities to those young people who need them most, working with primary schools with a higher than national average proportion of pupils receiving free school meals.
Our delivery in state secondary schools focusses on developing the leadership skills of young people aged 11-16, specifically in the areas of creativity, confidence, adaptability and resilience. Our coaches bring these skills to life in one-off taster sessions and/or in a dedicated leadership programme, typically over a half-term. The programme has a specific focus on supporting schools in areas where cricket has a limited footprint.
Pupils put their skills to the test in Chance to Compete, our national state secondary schools competition. Running over a two-week period in the summer, we host eight regional finals, in partnership with the eight regional Women’s teams. [more info about format]
In Birmingham, we run a bespoke programme, in partnership with TSA Sports, aimed at pupils at risk of exclusion or criminal activity. Mentors Tanyah Sam and Ray, deliver an impactful classroom session, with workshops covering race, discrimination, county lines, knife crime, gang affiliation and joint enterprise. After covering these topics in the classroom session, the pupils enjoy an hour of Street cricket.
Teacher training
As we aim to raise the profile of cricket within each school, we provide additional teacher training and resources to support school staff to continue cricket in the curriculum and connect their pupils to other opportunities to play cricket in their community.
Our coaches encourage all class teachers to attend every session so their coach can share their top tips for delivering each activity. By the end of the half-term, the baton is passed over for the teacher to take a lead in delivering the activities. Our delivery partners also run dedicated teacher training events to further embed their new skills.
The Chance to Shine Portal hosts a variety of lesson plans for all ages including instructional videos and top tips from professional cricketers.
In partnership with Capital Kids Cricket, Chance to Shine delivers pioneering cricket sessions in four London hospitals:
This programme is currently funded by The Angus Lawson Memorial Trust.
Coaches Denise and Ray deliver a 36-week cricket themed programme to help children recover from physical and psychological trauma.
Our coaches run weekly hospital cricket sessions in both the main school areas and on specialist wards. The 90-minute sessions feature catching, throwing, batting and bowling techniques that are adapted to the abilities of each child. A number of children are too sick to make the trip downstairs to the hospital school so activity is adapted to allow bed-bound patients to take part. For some, it is the only regular physical education the children receive during their hospital stay.
The sessions can be a welcome break from clinical treatments, counselling and periods of isolation for the children and can play a positive role as they experience and recover from their treatment.
of teachers surveyed said their school intended to have cricket in the curriculum in the following academic year
of teachers agreed the programme increased pupils’ interest in cricket outside school
of parents agreed their child’s coaches are good role models
Proportion of teachers surveyed who agreed they felt confident to deliver a cricket session without an external coach present:
Our delivery in state secondary schools focusses on developing the leadership skills of young people aged 11-16, specifically in the areas of creativity, confidence, adaptability and resilience. Our coaches bring these skills to life in one-off taster sessions and/or in a dedicated leadership programme, typically over a half-term.
The programme has a specific focus on supporting schools in areas where cricket has a limited footprint. You can read an independent evaluation of our secondary school programme here.
We encourage primary schools to take part in local and regional competitions so pupils can experience a competitive environment.
Chance to Compete, our secondary school competition, gives state secondary school school children an opportunity to play competitive cricket. The format and rules are adapted to remove any barriers, so all schools have the capacity to play, but retain the fundamentals of the game.
There are formats and rules related to indoor and outdoor cricket across all year groups, however we run flagship competitions to regional level at U13s & U15s (for girls’ and mixed teams).
To find out more about taking part in Chance to Compete, please contact your local county cricket board.
It’s not just the children who get the opportunity to learn more about cricket, we also encourage their teachers to get involved. Many teachers tell us they see cricket as an intimidating sport and have avoided teaching it as a result.
The Chance to Shine coaches deliver informal training to the teachers so that, once the six-week period has ended, they too feel more confident with the sport and are able to build a sustainable culture of cricket within their school.
The Chance to Shine School’s Portal is a bank of free digital resources for teachers that gives them the lesson plans, instructional videos and top tips from England cricketers to coach their own sessions.
of teachers agreed the programme increased pupils interest in playing cricket outside of school.
In partnership with Capital Kids Cricket, Chance to Shine delivers pioneering cricket sessions in three London hospitals
The Children's Hospital at Great Ormond Street
The Teenage Cancer Unit at The Royal Marsden Hospital
Lavender Walk Adolescent Mental Health Unit
This programme is currently funded by The Westminster Foundation and the Matchroom Sports Charitable Foundation.
Coaches Denise and Ray deliver a 36-week cricket themed programme to help children recover from physical and psychological trauma.
Our coaches run weekly hospital cricket sessions in both the main school areas and on specialist wards. The 90-minute sessions feature catching, throwing batting and bowling techniques that are adapted to the abilities of each child. A number of children are too sick to make the trip downstairs to the hospital school so activity is adapted to allow be-bound patients to take part.
For some, it is the only regular physical education the children receive during their hospital stay.
The sessions can be a welcome break from clinical treatments, counselling and periods of isolation for the children and can play a positive role as they experience and recover from their treatment.
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