L-R Teacher Emma Curtis, OF&D’s Ray Smart, Guernsey Raiders Director of Rugby Jordan Reynolds, GRA Coach Rachel Merrien and OF&D’s Mike Marshall present children from Le Rondin with their new rugby kits/

Le Rondin Lions will have a brand new kit, supplied by OF&D, when they make their debut in the Guernsey Rugby Association’s Canaccord Primary Schools Tag Festival on 19 March.

Teacher Emma Curtis has been coaching tag rugby for more than five years and felt that now with the help of GRA Coach Rachel Merrien, who has been working with the children since September, they were ready to take part in the Festival and with 25-30 children regularly training they will be entering four teams. “They have been able to take the core values that are portrayed in rugby back into their classrooms.” Rachel said.

Jack, 10, said he liked rugby because it was fun; Emma, 11, said she liked rugby because you could hold the ball which you could not do in football; while Harvey, 10, said tag rugby was good because everyone had smiles on their faces.

Deputy headteacher Linda Armstead said the help of OF&D was invaluable to the school. “They support us with the things that we couldn’t finance ourselves as we have to prioritise learning needs and specialist kit does not fall into that,” she said. “However we recognise that learning is not only done in the classroom and this is about things such as team work, social skills and supporting the local community.”

Click here to read RFU report of the Festival.  Le Rondin did brilliantly and reached the quarter finals of the year 5 & 6 competition – click here to see some photos.