Rochdale Mayfield 'Building the Future' school programmes hitting new heights

The Building the Future School Programmes at Rochdale Mayfield – encouraging schoolchildren to take part in rugby league – is going from success to success

The Building the Future School Programmes at Rochdale Mayfield – encouraging schoolchildren to take part in rugby league – is going from strength to strength.

To date, the club has successfully completed three six-week programmes and provided over 1,250 children from 19 primary schools in the Rochdale borough with 204 hours of free rugby league coaching.

At least 15 children who have participated in one of the three programmes have taken up the sport and joined Mayfield’s ever-growing youth set-up. The community rugby club’s work will be continuing in 2023 and beyond as Mayfield aims to break even more barriers and build partnerships throughout the borough, attracting even more schools to become ambassadors and take part in future programmes, festivals and match day experiences that the club has in the pipeline.

Rochdale Mayfield vice chairman and development officer Carl Abraham said: “We are absolutely delighted with the number of schools that have got on board during our 2023 programmes.

“Through experience, I knew the programme would be a success but didn’t think for one stage we would have the number of schools involved in such a short period of time. Each programme has improved and just gets better each time.

“The programme also gives our coaches valuable experience working with children. Our coaches have thoroughly enjoyed every minute and want to highlight how amazing the students have been during all our visits; they’ve been an absolute pleasure to coach, and we can’t thank you enough for believing and trusting in our programme.

“Every child is a credit to the schools of the borough and schools should be very proud of them, we definitely are and we can’t wait to re-visit and spend more quality time with both staff and students in 2023 and beyond.”

If you want to be involved through sponsorship or a school that would like to benefit from the free programmes then please email the club on info@rochdalemayfield.com.