Let's Talk About..... Opportunity

It’s over 50 years since I didn’t get the opportunity to play football at school, and now it’s wonderful and amazing to see our Lionesses excel in women’s football and win back the Women’s Euros trophy!

When I was at primary school in the juniors, back in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s, I had the opportunity to learn how to sew. It wasn’t my mother who taught me, but Mrs Richardson, a parent to my classmates, who came into school every Thursday afternoon to teach us sewing. When I say “teach us” what I mean is teach us Girls. The boys had their own Thursday afternoon activity – Football! 

Our small primary school didn’t have the resources for formal P.E. lessons. It was only when an extra teacher was required, with the classroom bulging (there was only an infants class and a junior class), when the juniors were divided into 2 classes, that the extra teacher, Mr Brown, could take the boys out to play football. There wasn’t a school playing field large enough, so they went into the deer park, a short walk away – Bradgate Park – to play football on the only flat grass around. Incidentally, Leicester City football team quite often used Bradgate Park for their training, and could often be spotted running on the hills.

Consequently I have no idea how to play football. I have never played it. Even at secondary school us girls were only allowed to play netball and hockey.

Anyway, Thursday afternoon was my favourite part of the week, and Mrs Richardson taught us how to make dolls and soft teddy like toys with clothes on. We learnt how to hand stitch, and stuff them with kapok and make their clothes. I just loved it. I discovered I could do it without too much fuss and bother. If it was raining, the boys joined in our sewing activity. According to my brother, he had a good go at sewing but his heart wasn’t in it. A disappointing second to getting the chance to run around outside. And truth be told, maybe the boys were a bit disruptive to our quiet sewing afternoon.

I was happy that I was sewing and not playing football, but maybe my fellow classmates felt differently. Maybe they would have loved the opportunity to play football, but never got the chance. Maybe they hated sewing. So surely we all needed to be given the chance to find out what we enjoy doing. Children need to learn so many different life skills growing up, and school is the perfect environment for that to happen. There really does need to be something for everyone. We all have different qualities and they need to be discovered and encouraged whatever they may be.

Along with a lot of parents my mother was a busy person, and teaching me to sew wasn’t always at the top of her priority list, so thank goodness for Mrs Richardson, who nurtured my enthusiasm. On a side note, Mrs Richardson’s childhood home was the farmhouse that I grew up in, as my parents bought it from her parents. My grandmother did teach me to knit though, and my mother was always on hand to pick up my dropped stitches. 

My own girls did have the opportunity to play football, and tag rugby, along side netball and hockey, as well as the creative arts at school. We don’t need to excel at something to enjoy it, and we can’t all be good at everything, but we do need to give everything a try. If you don’t have the opportunity to try, you will never know what might be!