Over 120 Girls attended a girls-only football festival on Wednesday 19th November to round off a block of school based football sessions.

Every school in Kirkintilloch and Lenzie were offered the opportunity to have a five-week programme of girls-only football sessions for those in Primary 1-3, focussing on having fun with the ball, and gaining confidence in a football environment with their female peers.

The festival involved lots of small-sided games, and fun football sessions where the girls were able to show off their skills gained over the past five weeks.

Two Scottish Internationalists, Emily Thomson and Sarah Crilly of Glasgow City FC, were on hand on the day to help out and offer assistance and feedback to the girls. This was though the highly successful Role Models programme implemented by the Scottish FA. They were also put on the spot with a question and answer session which brought about some interesting questions from the girls.

From the programme, girls were signposted to local clubs who had a pathway in place if they wished to progress into more formal club environment.

For further information on activity within East Dunbartonshire, please call 0141 578 8431 or email football@eastdunbarton.gov.uk

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Clackmannanshire Council Sports Development ran a Girls Only Football Festival on Friday 10th October which saw over 190 Primary 4 / 5 girls from local schools attend Tullibody Civic Centre to play in the Fun Fours event.

These festivals that run throughout the year within Clackmannanshire aim to get more children active and involved within a local football club or Soccer Centre. This particular festival's aim was to help raise awareness of local football opportunities available specifically to girls.

To help spread the message, Scotland Women's A Squad player and Glasgow City captain, Leanne Ross visited the festival to watch the skills on show and to share a few words about her experiences in girls and women's football while growing up.

As a follow up to this festival, Clackmannanshire Sports Development have now began a Girls Only Soccer Centre. The first class ran on Thursday 23rd October and attracted 30 new girls into the programme.

Football Development Officer, Martyn Buckie said: "It's great to see such a large interest from local girls willing to get involved in football. In this weekly class they will learn the fundamentals of football in a fund, safe environment and meet new friends along the way."

Sports Development's Girls Only Soccer Centre runs on Thursday evenings, 5-6pm at Lornshill Academy every week and is open to any girl aged 4 -8 years old.

To find out more information contact Clackmannanshire Council's Football Development Officer on 01259 - 452332 or mbuckie@clacks.gov.uk. If you wish to book onto the class call the Booking Centre on 01259 - 213131.