Real Life Referees Visit Ravenscroft

On Wednesday 11^th January, we were lucky enough to have welcomed two qualified football referees to our school:

Ben Speedie has been a referee for 12 years. He is now a level 1 referee who officiates in the National and Premier League. He was appointed in 2022 as the Referee Development Officer for Liverpool County and upon this appointment he stated that he ‘wants to inspire, educate and promote refereeing to everyone.’ Ben holds many development meetings for existing referees as well as newly qualified and young referees.

Charlotte Cochrane is a 16 -year old referee who qualified at the age of 14. She is now regularly refereeing open age women as well as being the assistant referee on the National League. She continues to referee younger boy’s teams each weekend too. Last year, she was chosen as the Young Ref of the Year by her league, was accepted into the Liverpool CORE (Centre of Refereeing Excellence) for Liverpool and is currently on the promotion pathway in the women’s game.

Our two visitors spoke to our Key Stage Two children about life as a referee, what they have to do and how passionate they are about it. They played lots of competitive games with them demonstrating signals they use for corner kicks, goal kicks and throw ins. The children were also able to use the flags that assistant referees use in games.

Our children really enjoyed the session and some of them were so inspired that they are already planning to become a referee in the future. If your child wishes to do this, and we hope we will see some future stars, they can contact Liverpool County Football Association when they are 14. Children do not have to play football to become a referee.

Well done everyone. You were great!