Today we celebrate International Women's Day. To coincide with this, a number of schools in the constituency have taken part in 'This Girl Can', a campaign launched in 2015 which encourages and celebrates the participation of women in sports and leisure activities.
Hatch End High School was one of the schools taking part, and it was great to be able to visit this afternoon to see what they had planned. In addition to a range of activities, including cricket, boxing and yoga, a group of Year 11 students had organised a football session for some of the younger year groups. Speaking with some of the pupils, it was great to hear about the many opportunities offered by the school for females to take part in sport.
Following this visit, I made my way over to Bannisters Sports Ground for another session celebrating the day, which had been organised by the Harrow Girls' Football School Partnership and Middlesex FA.
I was pleased to meet with Alex Young, the strategic lead for girls' football in Harrow, and Andy Perren, Participation Development Officer at Middlesex FA, to hear more about the work that is being done to promote the enjoyment of girls football locally.
I was really impressed to hear that 15 schools - and over 200 pupils - across the borough were taking part, including Grimsdyke and St Teresa's schools in my constituency. I am really pleased the event was so successful.
