For over ten years, primary schools across England have had one guarantee when it came to physical education: the PE and Sport Premium, a ring-fenced £320 million-a-year grant that schools had to spend on PE, school sport and physical activity, and nothing else. It’s rarely made headlines. But from 2027, it’s gone — and what …
When Saffron first picked up a rugby ball with TackleLondon, none of us could have known where it would lead. This week, she earned her first international cap for the European Under-15s Touch Rugby Championships: an extraordinary achievement, built entirely on her own hard work, talent and determination. We’re so proud to have been a …
Read more “Remember Saffron? Look Where Opportunity has Lead Her”
For many young Londoners, the summer holidays mean a welcome break from school. But six weeks without the structure, routine and community that term time provides can also leave some young people with fewer places to go and fewer opportunities to spend time with people they know and trust. That’s why, while schools are closed, …
Read more “The Matt Ratana Rugby Academy Stays Open Through the Summer”
Just before the summer block began, 45 young people from eight of our TackleLondon provision schools came together at Croydon RFC for an evening of touch rugby, competition and, importantly, meeting people they might never otherwise have shared a pitch with. The format was deliberately different from a typical school tournament. Rather than keeping players …
Read more “Eight Schools, One Evening, Forty-Five Players: Matt Ratana Summer Touch Tournament”
Three schools, one pitch, and a heatwave that nobody was going to let win. This July, girls from Langley Girls, Chislehurst, and Bullers Wood spent an afternoon on Langley’s pitch for a touch triangular: Years 7, 8 and 9, round robin, played in the kind of heat that usually empties a playground rather than fills …
Read more “The Last Play of the Summer – Girls Triangular Tournament”
There was a moment, early on at our very first TackleLondon Matt Ratana Awards evening, when the whole room fell quiet. Floyd Steadman OBE – the first Black captain of Saracens – described being a child in care, and how it felt to be told he would amount to nothing. It’s exactly the kind of …
On the evening of Tuesday 19th May 2026, something special happened in South London. Young people aged 10 to 19, their families, teachers, and coaches gathered together to celebrate – not just rugby skills, but the values, character, and growth that sit at the heart of everything TackleLondon does. The 2026 Matt Ratana Rugby Awards …
Read more “Celebrating Achievement: The 2026 Matt Ratana Rugby Awards”
Across London’s classrooms and football pitches, thousands of children are quietly holding families together. TackleLondon has worked with 32 of them this year – but the scale of the challenge is far bigger than most people realise.
TackleLondon, Community Rugby and the Fight Against Knife Crime Knife Crime Awareness Week, 18–24 May 2026 This week is Knife Crime Awareness Week – the annual national campaign led by the Ben Kinsella Trust, running from 18 to 24 May 2026, that brings together communities, charities, schools and organisations across the country to take a …
Mental Health Awareness Week is a moment to pause. Not to have all the answers. Not to fix everything. But to ask the question we so rarely make time for: how are the young people around us actually doing? At TackleLondon, we are not therapists. We are not clinical professionals. What we are is consistent. …
Read more “Mental Health Awareness Week 2026: Why Consistency Is Our Mental Wellbeing Strategy”