Hythe & Dibden YFC is lending its full support to Play Safe – a national FA-led campaign to raise awareness of the importance of safeguarding in football.

Play Safe is being run in partnership with the NSPCC and has the full backing of the Premier League, EFL, Barclays FA Women’s Super League and the FA Women’s Championship. It’s also supported and being run across every other level of the game.

The main element of Play Safe is a series of short films which emphasise the importance of clubs such as ours having safeguarding as an everyday reality. The films also explain to parents/carers and children themselves know what to do if they feel unsafe or worried, because nothing matters more than making sure football is safe for everyone, especially children and young people. You can see these films below.

PlaySafe for Parents & Carers

PlaySafe for Children

PlaySafe for Club Officials

“As a youth team coach, I will be working with my club to ensure we support the Play Safe messaging,” says FA Chief Executive Mark Bullingham. “I am also pleased that the campaign has the support of the former footballers with lived experience of abuse in football, who are on our Survivor Support and Safeguarding Advisory Group. The Group has collectively said:

“Learning from the past is crucial, so that we can prevent the horrific experiences that happened to us and so many others in football, from happening again.

“As a group of survivors, we fully support the ethos and important messages that Play Safe conveys – whether to club officials, parents/carers and or vitally, children and young people themselves. Equally important is that Play Safe is not a one-off campaign – it will be used at key points in the football calendar to remind everyone in football, that children’s welfare and keeping them safe, should be at the heart of all that we do.”

As the Survivor Group points out, you’ll see Play Safe appearing at various points throughout the season to keep safeguarding front of mind in football. Together, we want to do everything we can so everyone – particularly children and young people – has a consistently positive experience of our great game.

The post We’re backing Play Safe appeared first on Hythe & Dibden Youth Football Club.

We are delighted to announce the return of our hugely popular soccer school on Friday nights from 6-7pm at Applemore College (all weather pitch) starting on Friday 16^th April and running every Friday until further notice. 

Requirements

Children must be in current year R or year 1.

Boys and girls are welcome (There is a Lionesses girls only group for this age on a Monday evening  5 – 6pm if any girls prefer that environment).

Register

Due to a need to provide an appropriate number of coaches and also to fulfil insurance, safeguarding and also covid requirements we will now need everyone who intends to attend to register online each week. A very simple form can be found at soccer-school-registration. Please fill this is at least a couple of days before each Friday you are coming along.

Price

Soccer school is free – no charge, but our new take away facility will be open so buy a coffee and maybe a snack for the players after the session.

Covid-19 Rules

ONLY ONE PARENT PER PLAYER CAN ATTEND (this follows our own and FA regulations for grassroots football) Please observe social distancing. There is a one way system into/out of the pitch area. Please meet on the grass area 10 mins before start and the coaches will get everyone organised. No parents can enter the pitch area. 

Do not leave you child unattended – you must stay on site for the entire session. Our coaches should not be administering first aid (covid regulations) so you must be available if required.

Further Information

Please check our social media platforms for weekly updates – we may need to cancel for extreme weather conditions or coach unavailability. 

Soccer school is about fun, social time for the children and falling in love with the game. We hope it leads the youngsters into our team structure and is the start of many years of playing the sport they love in a safe and happy team environment and developing both as footballers and young people…..

New teams will form this summer from the current year 1 players for next seasons under 7s (year 2)

Players need to wear shin pads, appropriate footwear and kit and bring drinks.

The post SOCCER SCHOOL SUMMER 2021 appeared first on Hythe & Dibden Youth Football Club.

Please consider donating the old pair to our new ‘boot exchange’ service to help us build up a stock of boots.

This is a new service being run by the club to allow members to swap boots that are no longer needed for used boots in our stock that have come from players within the club.

If you have any boots to donate or would like to get involved, please contact Kati on 07787 187744.

The post Hythe & Dibden Boot Exchange Service Launched appeared first on Hythe & Dibden Youth Football Club.

This week has seen a new announcement by the FA regarding the permitted activity. Crucially, and obviously, social distancing must be observed at all times, not to mention common sense.

The hampshire FA website has confirmed the following…

Permitted:

• playing football individually (individual skills or fitness activities);

• playing football with your family or other people living in your household;

• an individual can play football with one other person who is not from their household.

• coaching an adult player one-to-one.

Not Permitted:

• coaching a child (U18) from a different household one-to-one. In order to comply with our safeguarding policy, a child must have a parent/carer with them, which doesn’t comply with Government social distancing requirements;

• two or more people from one household playing with one person or more from outside their household.

Hopefully the first step of many towards the return of football, but as much as we’re keen to get back into it, safety and child welfare is our number one priority. We will keep you posted with developments and announcements.

Source:
http://www.hampshirefa.com/news/2020/may/15/read-fa-guidance-to-permitted-grassroots-football-activity-during-covid-19?fbclid=IwAR3wc0396Tvkis1D1ciWSG9fQMB_rwyW53TZ1at848Fs_VeZoFqxYp04W4M

The post Update on guidance to grassroots football clubs during Covid-19 appeared first on Hythe & Dibden Youth Football Club.

Louisa went through the transition after watching her son from the sidelines at under 7s, to taking on the coaches role from under 8s and is now coaching the same team at under 9s, and enjoying the experience.

Like all new coaches, Louisa got straight into her FA Level 1 course qualification, which gives a great insight into the theory as well as practical guidance on the England DNA and four corners of youth football development.

As well as support from Hythe & Dibden, our various coach development sessions and our online coaching resources, Louisa reached out to the Saints Foundation to see how they could assist her on her coaching journey. They assigned her a mentor who attended training with her and gave some great guidance on training methods and ideas.

“You have to be brave, but just do it. There are so many resources out there, but the main thing is to ask for help. Doing it on your own can be so challenging, so make use of that. Don’t try and tough it out on your own.”

A big thanks to the Saints Foundation for supporting Louisa our Under 9 hornets, great to have the backing of Southampton football club.

You can read more about the Saints Foundation’s supporting role here.

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