The Racketpack programme offers young children in schools and clubs their first introduction to badminton. Delivered through a variety of skills, drills and fun activity cards, the focus is less on technique and more on enjoyment and fundamentals. This makes it the perfect activity to include in a primary school summer celebration event, which is exactly what Hertfordshire do annually.
For Badminton England, this school summer celebration event provided a brilliant opportunity to promote the use of the Racketpack to School Games Organisers, in order for them to encourage all 12 School Sports Partnerships (who each consist of a collective of local schools) to have a school representing their area at the end of year event.
To encourage this, Badminton England’s Relationship Manager, Julie Pike, worked hard to get new School Games Organisers on board with the Racketpack programme who each covered the North Herts and Sele School Sports Partnerships areas. This was by no means an easy task, given the large number of sports that schools have the opportunity to pick from and engage with.
Earlier this year, Julie helped to organise and successfully deliver two Racketpack festivals in both School Sports Partnerships, with 8 schools and over 80 children attending each event.
To further support the delivery of these badminton Racketpack festivals, Julie utilised the help from local secondary aged pupils who were on school leadership programmes. These pupils helped to run the on-court activity stations and through their passion and dedication to sport, really brought the festivals to life for the younger age players.
Badminton England Relationship Manager Julie Pike said,
“As a regular badminton player and someone who started playing at primary school, I love to see children experiencing their first taste of badminton at Racketpack festivals. The activities and games are always so well received by the players and really help enhance the basic fundamentals of the sport in a really fun way. I really hope many of these players continue playing badminton within the many clubs and facilities in Hertfordshire.”
The Racketpack festivals gave many children their first positive experience of badminton and received excellent feedback from teachers and School Games Organisers.
Lisa Robinson School Games Organiser for North Herts said,
“ I have had fantastic feedback from all the schools that attended the Racketpack festival who all had an amazing day playing badminton. Next year I hope to work with Badminton England again and will try and go further and deliver a festival to older pupils in year 5 and 6”
Over the past year Badminton England have helped deliver nine Racketpack school festivals throughout the East Region which includes Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, reaching over 600 primary school children.
If you would like to find out more about the Racketpack for your club or school, contact your area Badminton England Relationship Manager here
