Foundation programme participants descend on Twickenham
Participants from a host of programmes delivered by the Falcons Community Foundation will enjoy all the excitement of the Gallagher Premiership Rugby final this weekend.
The showpiece finale of the domestic rugby season will see the Falcons represented by groups from four different projects as the community activity of the club and Premiership Rugby is celebrated at Twickenham.
From the Move Like a Pro course, 30 participants who completed a 12-week programme to improve their lifestyle will take part in a pre-match touch rugby festival against the other premiership clubs MLAP participants.
Move Like a Pro is an initiative to encourage a move away from a sedentary lifestyle and educate participants about the relationship between nutrition and physical activity.
From the Tackling Health with Greggs programme, which this season has seen a national rollout across all 12 Gallagher Premiership Clubs, Byker Primary have been chosen to represent the Falcons in a pre-match festival on the Twickenham pitch.
The school completed the six-week tackling Health programme earlier in the year and demonstrated a real passion to learn about how to make changes resulting in living a healthier lifestyle.
After enjoying a host of games and another Newcastle Falcons win at St James’ Park, Whitley Bay Rockcliff and Durham City RFC had further cause to celebrate The Big One ’19 as they were selected to travel to the Final to take part in the pre-match parade.
The Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup is a series of national grassroots rugby festivals for U11 and U12 rugby teams. Run in conjunction with all twelve Premiership Rugby clubs, the regional rugby events are an essential part of the UK rugby calendar.
To date, nearly 70,000 youngsters have participated in the tournament since its inception.
The Land Rover Premiership Rugby Cup has led the likes of Newcastle Falcons’ back row forward Callum Chick to realise their rugby dreams.
Spotted at the grassroots rugby festival hosted at Kingston Park, whilst playing for Ponteland RFC, Chick has since gone on to captain England U20’s in between pulling on the Newcastle Falcons jersey.
Completing the Falcons cohort, four students from the Hitz Learning Academy have been given the opportunity to attend the final as part of a weekend of teambuilding activities.
HITZ uses rugby’s core values of teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship to get young people not in education, training or employment (NEET) back into education, training, apprenticeships and/or employment, and is delivered nationally by England’s 12 professional rugby clubs.
Participants in the HITZ programme regularly report an increase in resilience, self-confidence and aspiration as a result of their involvement, and over 70% go on to achieve a positive progression into further education, training or employment.
