Building on the growth and development Spencers Wood Youth Football Club have experienced over the last few seasons, on Saturday 14^th January, the club was honoured to be asked by the Berks & Bucks FA to host an FA Respect evening for its parents and supporters with representatives and officials from BYDL, South Chiltern Minor League and East Berks Leagues also attending. 

Key speakers were Deborah Wyatt, the National FA Grassroots Respect Ambassador, Liz Verrall and Kevin England, the County Development Managers for Berks & Bucks FA and Bedfordshire FA respectively.  Following a welcome and introductions from Liz Verrall, the evening started with a presentation by Kevin England on cyber bullying which highlighted how technology is increasingly being used to bully children.  The question and answer session that followed allowed parents and supporters to understand this growing area of concern and helped to raise awareness on how to identify, reduce the risk and address cyber bullying.

Deborah Wyatt then followed on with a presentation on the FA Respect Programme.  In addition to video clips, audience members were invited to participate in realistic role playing scenarios that recreated inappropriate behaviours that can unfortunately be seen occasionally at football matches involving parents, officials and team managers.  This lead to a lively discussion and helped to raise awareness of the FA Respect Programme and demonstrate the positive behaviours needed to create a safe and fun environment for all to enjoy playing, supporting and officiating football.

Very positive feedback was received from all parents and supporters after the evening.  Deborah Wyatt, the National FA Grassroots Respect Ambassador added her thanks to Spencers Wood Youth Football Club for their commitment to the Respect programme by saying, “The club have continually shown that they are focused on the wellbeing of their players, while creating a fun and safe environment for them to enjoy the game of football. Congratulations to the club for successfully promoting the FA Respect programme and offering sound advice on sensitive topics such as bullying and cyberbullying.   We understand the Club will be putting together a development plan in order to strengthen the policies already in place but with longer term plans in attaining the highest award of Charter Standard Community Club, something they clearly demonstrate already. There was an excellent turn out of parents and officials for a Saturday evening workshop. Everyone took part, asked lots of questions and interacted in a fun, but informative role play session. Well done to you all!”

Spencers Wood Youth Football Club would like to thank all parents and supporters for attending the FA Respect evening.  For more information on the club, please see our website www.swyfc.co.uk.  For more information on the FA Respect Programme, please visit www.thefa.com/RESPECT.