Lucky Socks unveils England Rugby Schools programme

This is the biggest project Lucky Socks has ever delivered – and we’re proud to have done it alongside England Rugby, Allianz and (not to mention) Hacker T Dog.

The Allianz Kickstart programme is a six-week long topic aimed at helping children in primary schools discover T1 Rugby in a fun and exciting way.

From the original brief to increase engagement for 7-11 year-olds, through audience focus groups, the development of the programme, video and lesson plan production and the reward system that goes with it, Lucky Socks has delivered.

All this alongside the free kit pack from Allianz and England Rugby as part of the bigger ambitions to be in 5,000 schools over the next few years.

It’s been a year in the making for us and an extension of the work we’ve been doing with the RFU over the past two years.

A year ago we had the original conversations with the Game Development team to discuss how to make T1 Rugby more “stickable” and engaging in schools, with children who might never have played the game before.

Having understood the RFU’s ambitions, we also held conversations under an NDA with Allianz about their aims. Anyone who’e ever worked in branded content will know how crucial this is.

We then held focus groups in schools to understand what children and teachers needed from a programme like this. We listened and we learned.

From there, we hatched a plan.

We knew from our experience with children – and my 60+ visits to schools as an author – that the values of respect, kindness, friendship are a key part of primary school life.

We also knew that those same in-class challenges were echoed in the England Rugby values of Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline and Sportsmanship.

So we translated them into primary school language, and we came up with a six-week topic that is fundamentally fun and exciting. The T1 Rugby aspect, comes secondary. We aimed for engagement and smiles. We delivered.

As a result, the lessons start with a video cheekily narrated by Hacker T Dog of Children’s BBC fame and hosted by either Lauren Layfield or Joe Tasker – both popular and relatable for the target audience either through their BBC work or social media profiles.

Add in some England rugby men and women’s stars as “sponsors”, some fun games, and the lessons kick off in an entertaining way. What follows is a classroom discussion about the week’s topic (Enjoyment becomes having fun, Respect becomes being kind etc) and T1 Rugby development games for the children to go outside and play.

At the end of the lesson, each child gets that week’s sticker for a souvenir sticker poster – which they build weekly and take home at the end of topic.

We authored letters for parents from England stars Jess Breach and George Ford, who star in the videos, and we designed the whole thing to be delivered by teachers who may have no knowledge of rugby at all.

To have a look at our work with them, go to Lucky Socks and Rugby Schools Programme