A Crowthorne school teacher has been given a prestigious award from England Football for her contribution to girls’ football.
Edgbarrow school’s head of girls PE, Mrs Jo Madz-Martinez, was one of six winners at England Football’s #LetGirlsPlay awards among thousands of applicants.
The school has described the teacher as the ‘brains’ behind their #LetsGirlsPlay event which was held in March after an initiative was set up by England Football and the girls’ football school partnership.
One of the sessions saw more than 160 pupils get to play football alongside players from Reading Football Club.
Reading FC Women’s captain Brooke Hendrix was in attendance alongside Royals women’s goalkeeper Jackie Burns and previous Edgbarrow student and Reading FC under 21’s goalkeeper Harvey Collins.
“We were very lucky and honoured that three Reading FC players attended the session too,” said Mrs Madz-Martinez.
“A huge thanks to Brooke Hendrix, Jackie Burns and Harvey Collins for joining us and inspiring the students and openly answering the questions which were fielded their way.
“Three years ago we struggled to field one girls football team to represent our school and now we have three teams filled with 80 plus girls.
“We are hugely thankful and grateful to the kind generosity of our local community who have sponsored numerous fantastic new football kits including women’s specific for the girls’ team, matching the excellent level of football developing here in school.
“We continually want to support the development of football within our school by offering opportunities for students to have fun playing football.
“Therefore, we participated in the England Football and the Girls’ football school partnership initiative biggest football session which was branded #LetGirlsPlay.
“It took place in March at Edgbarrow and to remain inline with our inclusive community approach, we invited all students to our biggest after school football session ever.
“Over 160 pupils turned up in a variety of different football shirts and enjoyed playing football for an hour. Even some staff got involved.”
Edgbarrow School PE technician Ellie Gosling added: “Jo is passionate about sport and she’s also passionate about equality in sport and ensuring that all children have an opporutnity to play regardless of their ability and regardless of their background.”
