Eight schools are taking part in sessions aiming to provide a boost to girls at risk of dropping out of school, reports Leah Renz

Girls taking part in a skateboarding session at St Anne’s Catholic School for Girls in Palmers Green (credit Chloe Knott)

Around 180 girls across Enfield are participating in a twelve-week skateboarding programme to improve their physical and mental health.

Organised by Enfield Council’s public health team and funded by the London Marathon Foundation, the ‘This Girl Can Skate’ programme is aimed at girls at risk of expulsion due to low school attendance.

Eight schools are taking part, each with a class of approximately 20 girls meeting once a week for a one-hour skating session, delivered by the charities Everyone on Boards and Tottenham Hotspur Foundation.

“We take them really out of their comfort zone,” Aga Wood, founder of Everyone on Boards, told the Dispatch during a session at St Anne’s Catholic School for Girls in Palmers Green. “What we are trying to teach them is not to take themselves so seriously.”

Teenage years are a critical time period for promoting long-term physical health, with studies showing that those children who exercise aged from twelve to 15 years most likely to continue keeping up their physical health later in life.

Unfortunately, this time period is also when many children, particularly girls, drop out of sports. The This Girl Can Skate programme aims to change that.

“At the start, I wasn’t sure if I would like it,” said 14-year-old Janae, a participant on the programme. “When I told my mum, she was kind of worried about it”.

Janae explained that skateboarding is something she had never even thought of doing before. Now, it is her “favourite time at school”. The environment is one of fun and encouragement and Janae said that, when she falls, “your friends will laugh at you, but they’ll support you”.

Another participant, Jade, says her mum was also “a bit sceptical” about the This Girl Can Skate programme because she is “really clumsy”. She changed her mind though. “When she saw I liked it and was enjoying it, she was happy for me”.

The skateboarding sessions have meant that Jade interacts with new people, whom she now waves to in the corridors at school. After the programme, she thinks she might continue skateboarding with her sister.

Skate coach Daniella Omokore pointed out that the sessions create communities of girls who can now go and skate in the park together and not be intimidated.

A further facet of the programme is employability mentoring. In each group of 20 girls, three are selected for one-to-one mentoring by a mentor working either as a social media influencer, a fashion designer or in finance.

Once all the sessions are completed, the participants will host a ‘skate jam’ to show off their skills.

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