International Women’s Day of Sport

Some of our Green and Purple Flash students attended this event at The News Building on Wednesday 6 March. When they got over the excitement of the goodie bag, the atmosphere back on tube was a buzz of excitement about girls sport.

Graveney students were invited to attend the Sun’s International Women’s Day panel hosted by former Lioness Lianne Sanderson to listen to inspirational stories of women in sport. There were discussions on why visibility and representation is so important as girls are twice as likely to dropout of sport than boys. 

Paralympic Swimmer Ellie Simmonds shared her experiences of the barriers faced with a lack of opportunities for those with disabilities to take part in sport. A real life Gladiator, Liv Sheldon spoke about how the bullying she experienced at school made her focus on sport and moulded her into her Gladiator name Diamond, by focusing on weight lifting.

Layla Guscoth, England Netball Captain and Doctor spoke about how some people actively encouraged her to drop out of medical school to pursue netball.  You can be excellent in your career as well as in sport, you can be both a doctor and captain for England. 

Stephanie Hillborne, CEO of Women in Sport, a charity dedicated to transforming sport for the benefit of every woman and girl in the UK. Sport has transformed over the last 40 years, but there is still more to do to minimise the participation rate gap.

The students would all agree that it was an inspiring day.

Our thanks go to Ms Davies for organising the trip