Students put their best foot forward to Show Racism the Red Card.

It’s been 135 years since the Nottingham Girls’ High School football club was established – challenging the opinions of the time, from people who thought that it was too dangerous and simply improper for young girls to ‘imitate the pursuits of men’. We’ve come a long way since then (thankfully!), especially when it comes to women in sport.

Today we still encourage our students to challenge stereotypes in all areas of life and to be aware of current issues and conscious of how they might tackle them. This came in to play at the recent event we attended at Nottingham Forest FC, organised by the UK’s anti-racism educational charity, Show Racism the Red Card, which works with high-profile football players and clubs to help tackle racism in society.

Our student football team receives training sessions with the NFFC coaches and we are lucky enough to have them come in to school and work closely with the girls on a regular basis. Fifteen of those students were invited to spend the day putting their football skills to the test, receiving a tour of the grounds and enjoying a question and answer session with NFFC player Britt Assombalonga.

At Nottingham Girls’ High School we nurture the sporting potential of our students and have built quite a reputation for being an active, adventurous school because of the opportunities we provide our students outside of the classroom.

This event was fantastic not only because our girls were able to put their sporting prowess to the test on professional ground but they were able to learn more about another important cause. One that they can now help spread awareness of. It’s incredible to see how our students inspire each other in and out of the classroom – or in this case, on and off the field!

Last year alone our students dedicated over 3,500 hours of their free time to worthwhile charities, project and initiatives.

We are proud of our 140 year history and it’s absolutely fantastic that we’ve got our own Senior football team and are developing a Junior football team. To see our girls today learn from the expertise of NFFC coaches and championship players and have the opportunity to work with them on an ongoing basis is a sign of how times, opinions and expectations for what women can pursue and achieve have changed – for the better!