Bexley Tigers has launched its first ever Girls-Only Community Hub, with weekly recreational basketball sessions now running at St Catherine’s School for Girls in Bexleyheath every Saturday from 10am to 1pm.
The hub gives girls across the borough a dedicated space to learn the game, get active, make new friends and have fun — in a safe, welcoming environment built entirely for them. Sessions are exclusively for girls and led by qualified Basketball England coaches, so players train and play alongside girls of a similar age and level, with no pressure, no intimidation and no experience needed. Every girl’s first session is free, and registration is open now at bexleytigers.co.uk/girls.
Why girls-only matters
The national picture makes the case by itself. Sport England’s latest Active Lives survey found that only 46% of girls in England meet the Chief Medical Officer’s recommendation of an hour of physical activity a day, compared with 52% of boys — a gap that has persisted across every year of the survey. Research by the Youth Sport Trust shows girls are twice as likely as boys to say they don’t enjoy physical activity, and almost four times more likely to dislike PE.
The teenage years are where sport loses girls altogether. In a landmark study by the charity Women in Sport, 43% of girls who considered themselves sporty at primary school had disengaged from sport as teenagers — more than a million girls nationwide — compared with 24% of boys. The most telling finding was why. Most of those girls said they still enjoyed sport, and almost three quarters said the feeling of being watched while they played was a barrier to taking part. As the charity concluded, girls are not voluntarily walking away from sport — they are being pushed out of environments that were never designed for them.
Bexley Tigers has watched the same pattern unfold at home. Girls turn out in numbers for the club’s borough-wide school basketball league, which now runs across 12 of Bexley’s 16 secondary schools. But when the only route to keep playing is a mixed, male-dominated session, too many quietly drift away — not because they have stopped loving basketball, but because there was nowhere comfortable to play it.
The Girls-Only Community Hub removes that barrier at a stroke.
More than a game
The benefits of getting this right go far beyond the court. Regular physical activity in adolescence is linked to better physical health, stronger mental wellbeing, higher confidence and better sleep — at a time when anxiety and loneliness among teenage girls are rising nationally. And then there is the simplest benefit of all: friendship. The hub is designed to be as social as it is sporting — a place where a girl can arrive knowing nobody and leave with a team.
“Girls in Bexley have been telling us the same thing for years — they love basketball, they just want a space of their own to play it,” said Bexley Tigers Chairman Sten Mayunga. “Now they have one. There’s no trial, no pressure and no experience needed. Turn up, learn the game, make friends and have fun. That’s the whole point.”
From Bexleyheath to the England pathway
The hub is Step 1 on the Bexley Tigers pathway — and for girls who catch the bug, the route onwards is already built. The club runs girls-only teams competing in the Central Venue League (CVL) and the Junior National Basketball League (NBL), taking players from their first fixtures all the way to national level.
That pathway is already producing. This month the Tigers’ own Naomi Musa was part of the winning London side at Basketball England’s U15 Aspire All-Star Tournament in Manchester — the national showcase of the Aspire Programme, the first stage of the England Talent Pathway, for which players are selected from a pool of around 20,000 boys and girls nationwide.
“Naomi shows every girl in Bexley what’s possible,” added Mayunga. “But this hub isn’t about producing England players — it’s about happy, healthy, confident girls who love playing basketball. If we develop more Naomis along the way, brilliant. If we develop hundreds of girls who simply love playing hoops with their friends every week, that’s every bit as big a win.”
Part of something bigger
The launch is the latest step for a club that has grown into one of the country’s leading community basketball organisations. Bexley Tigers is a Basketball England Level 2 Leading Club — one of only six in the country and the only one in London — with more than 600 members, 14 competitive teams and programmes running across the borough. The Girls-Only Community Hub extends that work to the group the national data says needs it most, and is planned to be the first of several girls-only hubs as the club grows female participation across Bexley.
Get involved
Girls-Only Community Hub — St Catherine’s School for Girls, Bexleyheath
Every Saturday, 10am–1pm. Open to girls aged 11 to 18. All abilities welcome — no experience needed. First session FREE.