RugBees is Back! York RLFC Foundation launches a return of the popular programme for primary school-aged girls!

York RLFC Foundation are delighted to announce the return of our RugBees programme for 2025!

RugBees is open to girls aged 7-11 and will be delivered on a weekly basis by club foundations across the country, including right here in York. Delivered in partnership with the RFL, sessions aim to help girls develop their confidence in areas such as catching, passing and kicking – whilst having plenty of fun and being able to enjoy sport for all that it offers.

RugBee’s was the first Rugby League programme to be developed specifically for primary school-aged girls, with the RFL choosing the popular RLWC2021 mascot RugBee to bring the project to life, a legacy of the recent World Cup.

Each session will be an hour long, beginning with an introduction to the game’s technical skills and finishing with a non-contact form of the game, such as Tag or Touch. Parents and guardians will be encouraged to cheer children on throughout.

In today’s modern world, girls as young as five years old are being bombarded by messages and labels that undermine their self-belief, crush their confidence, and make them feel as though sport is not a place for them, hearing and seeing messages on a daily basis which imply they are not as good as boys and they don’t belong in sport. 

The brand of RugBees is aiming to tackle these stereotypes and redefine what Rugby League means to girls. Sessions offer a fun introduction to rugby league, developing skills and confidence in an environment designed to help young girls thrive. Weekly sessions will be delivered in partnership with our club foundations with no need for memberships just a small fee per session. 

There is so much evidence to support that playing sport in a mixed gender setting isn’t right for all young girls and can be a barrier to participation which is why we are introducing RugBees to help tackle this.” 

The charity ‘Women in Sport’ recently revealed the findings of research into why girls as young as five years old don’t feel they belong in sport. The report – Sport, stereotypes and stolen dreams: Why girls still feel they don’t belong in sport – found that over half of parents (57%) said their daughter had felt excluded from sport, with a quarter (26%) confirming their daughter had been told ‘it wasn’t for girls’.

The study proves why RugBees is such an important project. The sessions will give girls a fun and enjoyable environment to play Rugby League and build their confidence up to a place where hopefully they will then want to join a team and play competitively. 

The opportunity allows girls to train at the York St John University Sports Park, the same facilities as the reigning Betfred Women's Super League champions York Valkyrie.

RugBees begins from Tuesday 20th May, with sessions taking place weekly every Tuesday at York St John University Sports Park (YO31 8TA) from 6.30pm to 7.30pm. RugBees is priced at £3 per session and can be registered upon by clicking here.

For more information on RugBees, please email inclusion@yorkrlfc.com or call 01904 670 880 and ask for the Foundation team.

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