Our Tuesday Academy Sessions Stay On Through Summer

For most young people, the summer holidays are something to look forward to: six weeks of freedom from timetables, homework and the school bell. But that same break can quietly take something away too. For some young Londoners, term time isn't just structure - it's routine, community, and people they trust seeing them regularly. Take that away for six weeks, and some young people will simply have fewer places to be, and fewer familiar faces to be around.

That's why the Matt Ratana Rugby Academy won't be closing this summer.

The Academy runs at Croydon RFC and sits within our wider TackleLondon pathway. It's often where a young person's rugby journey continues after they've first come across the sport through one of our school sessions - a next step that will keep the thread going rather than letting it drop the moment term ends.

Every Tuesday through the summer holidays, we'll keep the Academy running: free, structured, and open to any young person in the catchment area. We're deliberate about that openness. We're not trying to single out particular young people or decide who "needs" to be there. We'll simply make the door available to everyone - because that's often the surest way of reaching the young people who'll benefit most, without ever asking them to put a label on why they've come.

Why we're doing it

We won't assume what home looks like for any young person over the summer. For some, home will be exactly where they want to be - a break from the pressure of school. For others, the long holiday will mean losing access to the adults, routines, friends and activities that carried them through term time.

We can't know which will be true for any individual young person, and we won't try to guess. What we can do is make sure a safe, welcoming alternative is there either way.

One Tuesday session a week won't fix the bigger challenges young people or their families are up against. But it will offer something real: somewhere to turn up, coaches who already know your name, other young people to spend time with, and a community that won't disappear just because school has.

How this fits into the TackleLondon Pathway

Because the Academy sits inside the TackleLondon pathway, these relationships won't be one-off - they'll build. A young person might meet a coach at school, come along to a holiday session, take part in a tournament, and eventually find their way into a local club. Every one of those steps will be another chance to build confidence, form friendships, and feel like they belong somewhere.

We don't think the summer should be the reason that stops.

Keeping the Matt Ratana Rugby Academy open through the break will mean that even while school gates are shut, ours will stay open - to rugby, to community, and to a safe space that's there whenever a young person needs it.

That's the whole point of TackleLondon: consistent places where young Londoners can show up, be themselves, and feel part of something - twelve months of the year, not just during term time.

Discover more about the TackleLondon Pathway here.