School Sport
View video of Dame Kelly's Downing Street visit on youtube (52s flashplayer required, broadband connection recommended).
Dame Kelly Holmes visited the South West on 2 July 2008 to help celebrate National School Sport Week and Shine week. Dame Kelly travelled to Devon, Bristol and Downing Street as part of her week-long tour of the country in her role of National School Sport Champion to see how schools are inspiring young people through the national PE and Sport Strategy for Young People.
National School Sport Week, a government initiative managed by the Youth Sport Trust and supported by Norwich Union, engaged 3 million children across the country in a week of focused PE and school sport activity from 30 June to 4 July 2008.
Ivybridge Sports College celebrated its provision of PE and sport by offering more than 700 young people the opportunity to take part in a wide variety of different sports and activities including cheerleading, gymnastics, dance, rounders, athletics, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, golf and aerobics. From there, Kelly travelled to the City Academy, in Bristol, where the day’s competitive sport-theme continued with a multi-sport event linked to Bristol’s co-hosting with Bath of this year’s prestigious UK School Games, a major multi-sport event for elite young athletes of school-age from across the UK.
Shine, the first national schools festival celebrating talents in all young people, showcased dance, music, film, sport, science enterprise and a host of less recognised ‘talents’ such as caring and leadership. Nearly 2,500 schools took part in events. To complement the activities, students have been uploading video, audio, images and text on a ‘virtual wall of talent’ at www.shineweek.co.uk.
Children’s Minister Kevin Brennan said: “It’s an important part of young people’s development to discover and be encouraged in what they are good at – and that’s why this week, we are celebrating both National School Sport Week and the Shine festival, the first national schools celebrating young people’s talent in all its forms. 97% of schools now hold a competitive sports day thanks to our investment and the hard work of the Youth Sport Trust and staff on the front line. Competitive sport should be at the heart of school life, especially in Olympic year. “It helps young people develop lifelong skills like teamwork, discipline and respect for others – as well as being massive fun.
"All children should have the opportunity to compete and be challenged at their own ability level, instead of competitive sport simply being the preserve of the most able as in the past. “Almost three-quarters of pupils now take part in house matches and leagues, School Sport Partnerships organised a further 10,700 festivals of sport and the new network of Competition Managers and other changes coming into force will mean that competitive sport will carry on expanding.”
Chief Executive of the Youth Sport Trust, Steve Grainger said: “The Youth Sport Trust is working hard with schools across England in striving to improve opportunities for pupils to access all kinds of different sports, as we work towards giving all young people access to five hours of high quality PE and sport by 2012. The new National School Sport Week is a great opportunity to celebrate all the great work already taking place and set the bar even higher as we look to re-invigorate inter and intra-school competition for thousands more youngsters.”
Through their partnership with the Youth Sport Trust and a variety of UK Athletics schemes, Norwich Union has been backing British sport from playground to podium since 1999. Mark Hodges, Chief Executive of Norwich Union Life, explains: “We believe that the National School Sport Week is a positive sign of change in the development of youth activity in Britain. Through our work with Kelly Holmes and the Youth Sport Trust, Norwich Union is committed to preparing future champions and making it easier for the nation to get involved in sport at all levels.”
The National School Sport Week was shaped by schools and pupils themselves, who were set the task of coming up with the most innovative activity during the week. Activity focused around the following key themes:
Celebrate – everything that has been achieved in PE and school sport over the last year, including the rise in numbers of young people participating, the range of young talented sports performers coming through from school-level and the contribution made by young leaders and volunteers to school sport and to helping younger pupils achieve their potential.
Develop - National School Sport Week providing an opportunity for new initiatives and developments in PE and school sport to be launched in schools. This summer sees new and innovative developments in schools delivering more intra school competition as well as the launch of the national network of Competition Managers who are rejuvenating inter-school competition.
Profile – the week provided an opportunity for schools to raise awareness of all the fantastic work taking place in PE and school sport both nationally and at a local level.
View Downing Street video on youtube (4m 30s flashplayer required, broadband connection recommended).
Speaking at the Specialist Sports Colleges Conference 2008, Prime Minister Gordon Brown launched a new drive to encourage children to do more sport. He called for a national team effort by parents, teachers, sporting talents and volunteers to help make sport a central part of every child's life and unlock their talent and announced National School Sport Week.
Tackling Childhood Obesity
View Downing Street video on youtube (1m 52s flashplayer required, broadband connection recommended).
Oct 2007: The Prime Minister called upon parents and teachers to help tackle the issue of childhood obesity through diet and sport. The PM spoke during a visit to a special breakfast club at Harris Girls' Academy in South London, accompanied by Children's Minister Ed Balls and athlete Kelly Holmes.
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