The party made their way from the islands during a break in the poor weather to their lodgings at Penzance Youth Hostel.
They took part in coaching sessions run by Cornwall FA coaches at the Sports Centre at RNAS Culdrose along with members of Culdrose Youth FC.
Clare Stone is the Secretary of the Five Islands School FC. She said, “It is a perennial problem for us, finding opposition for our teams because we are on a group of small islands. We make contact with schools which hold summer camps in Scilly and then fundraise to visit them. The schools are mainly from Cornwall and Devon and in the past we have been able to arrange return visits to St Erth and St Mewan primary schools. These trips have happened solely because we have used funding available at the time or have fundraised and they have involved school years 5 and 6 children.
“This year’s trip is about bringing a wider age group, 8 to 11 years, and participating in organised coaching sessions as well as a few games. It has only been possible due to the £2,700 grant from Awards For All. If it wasn’t for Awards For All we simply wouldn’t have been able to come.”
The Five Islands School FC has been going for five years and has about 85 players aged 4 to 16. It is run voluntarily (and separately) from the school it is named after and is for all the children from the five inhabited islands - St Mary’s, the main island and the off-islands of St Martin’s, Tresco, St Agnes and Bryher. Three of the players on the trip are off-islanders.
This year the club was awarded the FA Charter Standard status. Clubs have to adopt good practice in their football administration and adhere to codes of conduct and have qualified coaches to be given the award by The FA. David Bray, Cornwall FA Youth Secretary, presented the certificate.
Clare says another important aspect of the trip is meeting people from other places, “Our children don’t get the social interaction that mainland children get. Mainland children can play with a set of friends at school and another set of friends at their football club. Our children see the same people day after day. Children from the off-islands will board at the secondary school on St Mary’s when they are 11 years old. If children want to study for A-Levels they must go to the mainland when they are 16. So, it is very important that they have a chance to mix with people they don’t know from an earlier age.”
The grant from Awards For All meant that the club could bring four coaches – Steve Wainwright, George Kershaw, Duncan Graham and Vicki Smith who hold FA Level 1 coaching qualifications. Steve said, “It’s great to be able to work with experienced and excellent coaches. Because of our isolation, we find it difficult to generate new ideas and this trip is a chance to take in new thinking. We can take this opportunity to improve our skills and take back ideas for the players.”
Cornwall FA’s Football Development Officer, Phil Cardew, was able to incorporate an in-service element to the two days so that the coaches from Scilly could fulfil their commitment under the FA Charter Standard scheme to attend an in-service coaching event. Phil said, “From the county FA’s perspective, it’s been great to work with the Five Islands coaches and young footballers. One of the best things to see was their footballers mixing with those from Culdrose Youth and their coaches working with ours.” Clare said that from this the club were keen on implementing an individual achievement scheme which has awards for good attendance and a positive attitude as well as for basic football skills. This is really important to the youngest children who can’t play competitive matches and it’s good for all the players self-discipline.”
The coaching sessions involved putting the players from the two clubs in teams with each other. Eight year old Scillonian Ethan Graham said, “We met new people. I liked it because we played games and we teamed up with people we didn’t know. We got to go on a minibus and the flight on the Skybus was really fun.”
Rory Guy, 11, said the whole trip was brilliant,” I met loads of different people and the coaches did different things than we have done before. Clare did a lot of work behind the scenes. I have been on previous trips, but this is the best one so far.” He says the players from his club and Culdrose Youth were on the same ability level and that it was a good experience to have been measured up against them.
Che Heaton, who’s 10 years old, said, “I loved staying in Penzance Youth Hostel. We had our own dorm and the older kids were in their own room. I liked it that there were other people staying in the hostel too.” On the footballing side, Che said the trip has given him a chance to try new skills, “I play in defence and wasn’t good at shooting, so I’ve done loads of shooting practice here and I’m better at it now.”