Like so many, everyone at England Netball has been anticipating the Government’s update today (22.02.2021) as the nation looks towards Spring and Summer 2021 and what that means for our game.
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement, we are pleased to confirm that netball within schools can resume from Monday 8 March, and community netball can return outdoors from Monday 29 March.
We aim to provide every member of the Netball Family – whether you are part of a club, a registered league or one of our programmes such as Back to Netball, Bee Netball or Walking Netball – the opportunity to get back on court safely this Spring and are working hard behind the scenes to make this happen.
Over the coming days and weeks, we will be continuing to help with the recruitment of COVID-19 Officers to help netball organisations safely return to court, as well as tailoring our guidance specifically to help clubs, teams and leagues.
We will be updating the Restart guidance and Care Package, specifically for England Netball members, to reflect the latest Government update as further information becomes available following today’s announcement, which we anticipate will be shared imminently.
We know gaining access to facilities has been one of the biggest challenges that netball organisations have faced when coming out of previous lockdowns and we’re eager to help so that clubs and leagues have a place to play. As part of the Care Package, member netball organisations will be able to download a suite of advocacy support tools in the coming weeks to help tackle facility challenges and put netball at the forefront of your venue’s mind.
Since the first lockdown was imposed in March 2020, COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the mental wellbeing of our Netball Family, and we cannot wait to see women and girls up and down the country back doing what they love most – playing netball with friends, with a smile on their faces.
We’ve waited a long time to be able to return to the court – we have all missed the buzz of training, the game day rituals, the team talks, the matches, the competition. Lighter nights are coming and the wait is almost over. There are now just 35 days before we can reunite to play the game we love and embark on the journey to bring netball back bigger, better and stronger than ever.
And members – don’t forget you can keep engaged with the sport we all love by getting involved in our Virtual Netball Club. It is packed with netball training sessions, coaching tips, interviews with our netball heroes and lots of other exclusive content – to help get you court ready again in no time. So please check your inbox to find out more!
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