Something was different at TackleLondon training in Chislehurst last week; the girls arrived in matching kit, wearing their school’s colours as a team for the first time in its history. It’s the school’s first ever dedicated rugby kit, and it exists because one pupil decided her own achievement should belong to everyone.
Last year, Freya was recognised with a Jack Petchey Achievement Award for the effort and contribution that had earned her the respect of her peers. As part of the award, she was given the chance to decide how the grant behind it would be spent – and she chose to put it towards a kit her whole school could use.
She chose to support her school’s TackleLondon rugby sessions.
The grant went towards creating the school’s first ever dedicated rugby kit – a decision that says plenty about Freya’s connection to the sport, her pride in representing her school and her desire to help create something that other pupils could enjoy too.
This new uniform is a visible sign of the enthusiasm for rugby that has grown at the school, and of the commitment behind it – from a young person who chose to put her award towards something that will be shared by her teammates and the pupils who follow them.
What began as Freya’s moment of recognition has become something bigger: a kit the girls can wear with pride, and a piece of the school’s rugby story they can carry forward.
Celebrating young people and giving them the chance to give back: The Jack Petchy Foundation
There’s a lot to celebrate about The Jack Petchey Foundation and the opportunities it creates for young people across London and Essex. Established in 1999 by Sir Jack Petchey CBE, the Foundation’s mission is to inspire and motivate young people, recognise their achievements and help them build the confidence, skills and voice to shape their futures. A quarter of a century on, that work has grown into one of the most significant youth-focused foundations in the region.
Its flagship Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme now runs across around 1,500 schools and youth organisations, recognising young people aged 11–25 for their achievements and contributions. And in 2025, the Foundation celebrated its 250,000th Achievement Award winner – an extraordinary milestone in a programme designed to make sure young people are seen, valued and celebrated for what they bring to their schools, clubs and communities.
The impact is substantial. In the 2024/25 academic year alone, the Foundation directly reached 195,960 young people through its grants and programmes and celebrated 12,485 young people with Achievement Awards. More than 20,000 people attended Achievement Award events to celebrate those young people and their achievements.
Each winner receives a £300 grant to decide how to invest within their school or youth organisation to benefit their peers. The Foundation describes these grants as creating “ripples of impact” – turning one young person’s achievement into opportunities for others through things like equipment, trips, training and other projects.
We’re so pleased to see that idea playing out through rugby in Chislehurst – and hugely grateful to the Jack Petchey Foundation for creating programmes that give young people the recognition, resources and opportunity to make a difference in their own communities.
A first for Chislehurst School for Girls
For us, the full story is bigger than a new shirt. TackleLondon is built around the idea that rugby can open a door: into friendship, confidence, belonging and, ultimately, a wider community. A young person can start with no rugby experience in a school PE lesson and, if they want to keep going, progress through after-school sessions and tournaments, into the Matt Ratana Rugby Foundation Academy and eventually their local rugby club.
For girls in particular, those early experiences matter. Starting rugby at school means the first step into the sport can be accessible, familiar and shared with friends. From there, playing regularly, representing your school and being part of a team can help turn that first experience into something that feels like yours.
That is what makes Freya’s decision so special to us; she helped create something that strengthens the experience of the girls playing it now – and gives the next group coming through another reason to take pride in representing their school.
And that is what sport can do at its best. It gives young people somewhere to meet, something to work towards and a team to belong to. At TackleLondon, the rugby is the starting point; the relationships, confidence, friendships and sense of belonging that grow around it are what we want to last.
The new kit represents a school getting behind girls’ rugby, a young person investing in her peers, and a group of players who now have something of their own to wear with pride.
There are more girls to introduce to rugby, more friendships to make, more matches to play – and, in time, more young people who will have the chance to give something back to the team that came after them.
The new kit has already had its first outing at training, but this is only the beginning. There’ll be plenty more opportunities to see it on the pitch throughout the season – at training sessions, matches and school fixtures. And every time those shirts go on, there’s a great story behind them.
A huge well done to Freya – and we can’t wait to see the girls representing their school in their new kit.