Tudor Grange Academy is a co-ed school and technology college in Solihull and part of the Tudor Grange Academies Trust which consists of thirteen schools (seven primary, five secondary, and one all-through academy).

The school applied to The Lacrosse Foundation (TLF) in January 2023 for a grant to fund the purchase of some start-up equipment and we approved a grant of £2,145 which provided:

• 45 x Newitts unisex England Lacrosse sticks
• 48 x Newitts EL foam lacrosse balls
• 2 x 4ft x 4ft lacrosse goals with nets

Lacrosse was introduced at the start of the 2023 school year and according to one of the school’s PE teachers has really taken off!
They told us: “The children have taken a big liking to the sport. They all enjoyed the initial challenge of developing their skills especially cradling and checking, and the extracurricular club is doing really well, with around 30 dedicated students each week.”

Due to the interest with which the sport has been received in the school, Tudor Grange Academy has already started to spread lacrosse within the Trust. To give the sport a promotional boost, the school hosted Nik Roberts from England Lacrosse, who led a session with all of the secondary school PE departments on an inset day to help them understand the basics of lacrosse.

Three of the five secondary schools in the Trust have been granted funding, and are all now teaching lacrosse within some capacity, either within the curriculum or as an extra-curricular club. Looking ahead, the plan is to organise games and Trust match days for the students to come together and play.

Does the Trust have any other future plans for lacrosse?

It most definitely has! The Trust plans to continue to offer it as sport within curriculum time so that all 1800 students at Tudor Grange Academy Solihull will experience the sport before they leave the school. The Trust also plans to continue to push and develop the sport within the local communities to build up the knowledge and opportunities available for students.

As PE teacher Tilly Francis said: “Within the Trust we want to continue to develop it within all the schools, with the aim of coming together once or twice a year to play lacrosse together.”

Back in July 2022, TLF approved a grant for £10,000 to provide playing equipment & coaching provision for the Bromley School Games Programme. 

This was to support & enable lacrosse to be introduced into a number of primary schools in the Bromley area, in an initiative led by Mike Barrett.  The schools subsequently set up lunch-time clubs & internal leagues, as well as entering teams for the inter-school Key Stage 2 Leagues and tournaments that Mike set-up and ran.

An initial eleven primary schools received lacrosse coaching, and a ‘Bromley Junior Lacrosse Club’ was set up to provide an out of school opportunity for children to further their lacrosse experience.

Another eight local schools (Primary & Secondary) received lacrosse in Spring Term 2023, with taster sessions, breakfast clubs, & after school clubs established, together with CPD given to staff to help them run & support lacrosse.

The Bromley LC now provides teams at U10 & U12, and takes part in the SEMLA junior programme.  

An important next step is for the youngsters at this Club to play matches, to build on their initial enthusiasm to take up their new sport of lacrosse, and to build sustainability, and the club is looking to raise funds via their own GoFundMe page.     

Pupils in P6 & P7 at Strathblane Primary School in Glasgow enjoy their Wednesday after-school lacrosse club - which is run each week by Mrs Bairner the school’s lacrosse leader.

Two teams were selected to represent the school at the Scottish Central Region Pop Lacrosse Tournament back in March 2023, with both teams winning all of their matches in the Overs and Unders category.   

The Unders Team then went on to compete at the National Finals, where they were successful in becoming Scottish National Champions & qualifying for the Great Britain Pop Lacrosse Schools Finals at Keele University in June 2023.  [2023 was the first time the GB tournament had been run since the pandemic, with Strathblane being defending champions from 2019].

Ahead of the GB Finals, The Lacrosse Foundation were pleased to approve a grant of £1200 to provide new pop equipment (sticks, balls and goals) for use both at the tournament and at the school sessions, as their current equipment was old and worn out. This grant also funded two sets of team uniforms - one set of personalised ’Team Scotland' tops for the British Championships; and one set for the school to use in the future qualifying tournaments. 

After getting through to the play-offs in the Plate competition, Strathblane beat Mellor 8-4 in the semi-finals, and then over-powered Bowden Primary School 8-3 to become the Great Britain Pop Lacrosse Plate winners 2023.

Congratulations to all the team & to the school.  Keep enjoying your lacrosse !

(photo shows them after becoming Scottish National Champions).   

·       Do you have experience managing finances OR managing volunteers and leading meetings?

·       Are you able to plan ahead?

·       Are you willing to volunteer some of your time to help us grow the game of lacrosse?

If so, it would be great to have you join us at The Lacrosse Foundation - bringing your enthusiasm & skills to help support our trustee board.

We are looking for 2 new trustees: a Treasurer and a Deputy Chair.

• The Treasurer will help us administer our accounts, manage payments on a regular basis and help us with our financial planning

• The Deputy Chair will help support our chair with planning board meetings, providing leadership to the board and aid succession planning.

Please click here to view the full role description for treasurer, and here to view the full role description for deputy chair.

If you are interested in either of these roles, please email info@thelacrossefoundation.co.uk with a little bit about yourself and what you think you could bring to either role and we’ll be in touch.