• Put children at the heart of everything we do and all the decisions we make
• Encourage fun on the pitch, through equal opportunity and realistic expectations of our children
• Develop children’s confidence and character as players and as people, challenging any behaviour that conflicts with this
• Build the skills of our adults to provide a safe, healthy, respectful and enjoyable environment for kids
• Champion rugby’s core values, inspiring a lifelong bond between children, adults and our sport

Since becoming a Kids First club we have carefully selected friendlies with clubs that share the same values, have promoted opportunities for coaches to attend various coach education courses appropriate to their age group and delivered “in house” events for coaches to discuss what it means to be a Kids First Club as well as delivering some practical examples in the use of games rather than drills to encourage learning.

Parents have commented that they have noticed the difference, one saying “it’s great that club makes sure that fun comes first, my child always comes away with a smile on his face”

To reinforce the commitment further the club have recently taken a simple but hopefully significant step and agreed to do away with the label “mini” rugby and rename it Kids First rugby, additionally the current role of “Mini’s Chairman” has been replaced by Kids First Chairman. We hope this will encourage people to change the terminology and by doing so embed the phrase “Kids First”

Adam Cottingham, Kids First Development Manager at the RFU said “I’m not aware of any other club in the country that has done this; it’s a great move and congratulations for Brentwood RFC for driving this forward”