The Wallace High School is set to make dramatic improvements to their cricketing provision with a major investment to enhance outdoor and indoor nets, new astroturf cricket wickets, sight screens and a new electronic scoreboard. This will allow boys and girls at Wallace along with local cricket clubs of Lisburn and Derriaghy to enhance the quality of coaching and match facilities. With the ever growing number of young players at Wallace, these enhanced facilities will add real value to the now very popular sport for boys and girls.
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Sport NI: Your School Your Club Initiative
Three schools are set to benefit from £500,000 of Sport NI funding through the Your School Your Club initiative.
Made possible thanks to funding from the Department for Communities (DfC), the unique programme opens up the school sports estate for community and club use to enhance community access to sport through improved school facilities.
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons welcomed the community potential these new school facilities will offer. “As Minister for Sport, I am committed to raising the standard of sports pitches and facilities to ensure everyone has access to the sport of their choice. It is great to see Your School Your Club continuing to make a real difference to schools and their local communities across Northern Ireland.
“Improvements such as floodlights will open up school pitches to additional community groups and sports clubs and will encourage more people to improve their skills or even try a new sport. I look forward to Your School Your Club going from strength to strength, opening up different activities to a range of new participants.”
School Funding
Lismore College in Craigavon, Holy Trinity College in Cookstown and The Wallace High School in Lisburn will receive funding to improve their facilities which will also be available for local clubs and community groups, increasing opportunities for local people to participate in sport.
Education Minister Paul Givan said: “PE and sports offer a wide range of physical, social, and emotional benefits, not only for our children and young people, but for all of society.
“Partnerships like Your School Your Club enable our resources to be utilised effectively to enhance sports facility provision across Northern Ireland. This supports and benefits both schools and the wider community.”
Richard Archibald, Sport NI Interim Chief Executive, said:
“The ability to access good sports facilities within local areas is vital to any sporting organisation, yet many clubs in Northern Ireland struggle to find suitable places to train and compete. Schools are at the heart of our local communities and Your School Your Club is helping to open up school sports facilities to the wider community, with new and improved facilities benefiting both schools and local clubs.
“Over the past seven years, schools across Northern Ireland from Rathfriland and Ballymena to Carrickfergus and Newry have benefited from Your School Your Club investment, successfully opening up their facilities to local clubs and community groups and providing more opportunities for people of all ages to participate in sport.”
The Your School Your Club steering group consists of various organisations including the Department for Communities, Sport NI, Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, District Councils, Department for Education and the Education Authority.
Find out more here: www.sportni.net/funding/your-school-your-club/
Conclusion
Head of PE, Mr Hinds stated:
‘We at Wallace are very grateful to Sport NI and the Department for Communities for this grant, which will be used to enhance our cricket provision for boys and girls at Wallace, as well as for our local clubs. New outdoor and indoor nets, two new match wickets, sightscreens, and an electronic scoreboard will be fantastic additions to our cricket facilities, helping to provide excellent resources for many years to come.’
You can keep up to date with sports at Wallace via http://www.instagram.com/wallacesport
Last modified: January 29, 2025
