A FOOTBALL fanatic from Mortimer is taking her sporting concerns to the big leagues.
Teenager Katie Allen, has launched a petition to require schools to offer equal sporting opportunities to boys and girls.
And it already has more than 2,400 signatures.
After realising that many of her teammates shared her concerns about being offered to play netball over football, she decided to do something about it.
“I’m not asking for schools to change which sports they offer, but they should offer all the sports they run to all genders,” Katie said.
Rather than some schools only offering netball to girls and football to boys, Katie explained that she wants every pupil to have more options when it comes to sports.
“I understand that school sports sometimes need to be gendered for safety reasons, but they should allow all students to play all the sports on offer.
“I know that many schools offer a lot of sports clubs, but people won’t go. I want to make sure students have equal opportunities in PE lessons too,” she added.
And she has received a lot of positive responses so far.
“On the whole, I’ve received some really nice comments — one even nearly made me cry,” Katie said.
“Even if I don’t get this petition to Parliament, I just want to let people know what’s going on — that we don’t have equal sporting opportunities in schools.
“I’m 16 now, meaning if this petition does make a difference it won’t affect me but I want to help change it for people like me in the future.”
Outside of school, Katie plays for AFC Aldermaston and is also part of Oxford United’s regional Elite Talent ID programme.
For the Government to respond to Katie’s petition, it will need 10,000 signatures.
The petition is open until March 23, 2021.
To find out more, and to sign the petition, visit: bit.ly/37pb1VS
