Pupils from Ely College attended a kit design workshop at Shelford Rugby Club in Cambridge where they learnt about the heritage and values of a rugby shirt, before being given a the opportunity to create their own unique shirt.

The workshops are part of All Schools, an initiative launched in 2012 by the Rugby Football Union in partnership with the Rugby Football Foundation, which aims to help more secondary state school children play rugby.

Ely College is one out of 100 schools to join the All Schools programme in 2013, with more than 200 secondary state schools now participating since it launched last year.

During the day, a representative from the Rugby Football Union gave pupils a history of the rugby shirt and its values before a shirt designer talked them through the things to consider when creating their own design.

The pupils were then given free reign to design the shirt they wanted for their school rugby team to be competing in.

Chris Stephenson, chief executive of shirt designers Canterbury said: “This is our second year as official partner of All Schools; it’s a fantastic initiative to get more secondary state schools interested in and playing rugby, we are fully committed to supporting the programme.”