At the time of this fund, nearly one in five students at further education colleges in England were not active enough.
That’s 138,000 young people doing less than the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity each week.
We wanted to change that, which is why we invested £5 million across 49 colleges to help more students live active lives.
We know that students who go to a further education college are typically more inactive than students who attend sixth form in a school or go to university, partly because it’s the first time many are not doing compulsory sport.
Colleges also educate more students from lower socio-economic groups, as well as more Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups, and students with a disability.
All these groups are traditionally less likely to be active for a variety of reasons.
As well as traditional activities, like gym and fitness classes, self-defence, and yoga and Pilates, there were lots of new activities being used by the colleges.
They include Raveminton, which involves playing badminton under ultra-violet (UV) lights with fluorescent lines, neon nets and shuttlecocks sprayed with UV paint.
Tag American football, bubble football – where five-a-side football players go up against each while wearing an inflatable orb – and Parkour are just some of the other more non-traditional activities we funded to get students active.
The colleges designed their projects to also help the students more broadly.
Many colleges responded to mental health concerns about their students by establishing a mental health referrals system.
Others also offered a ‘fit for work’ programme to prepare students for the physical demands of the workplace.
Location: Bexhill
Grant: £136,000
The project at Bexhill College focuses on students doing less than 30 minutes of moderate activity per week.
It has three core elements: mental wellbeing classes such as yoga, engaging students through timetabled wellbeing sessions which link to employability skills, and building on current successful activities by extending their availability.
The aim is to establish more regular activity in students' lives.
Location: Hereford
Grant: £69,000
Hereford Sixth Form College aim to improve the overall health of both students and staff through their All Active programme.
Their physical wellbeing manager ran a set of targeted interventions to identify inactive students and staff, before launching a series of tailored activity programmes.
On a more individual basis, the college also began a one-to-one referral scheme for vulnerable students, and by liaising with the college's wellbeing team, they referred the students to a flexible series of activity programmes.
Location: Bridgewater
Grant: £102,000
Bridgwater College's BTC Active project offers a range of inclusive activity sessions each week for all their students.
The project is focused on women and girls, students from a lower socio-economic background and students with long-term health conditions.
BTC Active also arms students with employability skills, with innovative ways of getting active being created to spark interest.
Location: Manchester
Grant: £50,000
The vision was to transform Bridge College into a hub for disability sport in Greater Manchester and the specialist college supported its students (who have learning difficulties and disabilities) to get active, together with people in the wider community who have a disability.
A full-time sports coach was recruited to increase the variety and quantity of extra-curricular activities, engage and collaborate with community sports agencies, and utilise the college’s state-of-the-art facilities.
Location: Chesterfield
Grant: £160,000
Chesterfield College’s Healthy Lifestyle Project targets students who are inactive and aims to give them opportunities to become more physically active on a regular basis.
By aiming it at women and girls, disabled students and vulnerable students, the college aims to use physical activity to improve students' physical and mental wellbeing, as well as their individual development.
The project team was responsible for working with college staff and local community organisations to set up new activity programmes.
Location: Furness
Grant: £71,693
Fit4Work saw physical activity added to students’ timetables for at least one term, to help support their progression to being regularly active.
Students were identified by what they were studying, including courses with high numbers of female students, level one and entry level learners.
They completed a baseline physical activity survey to determine their activity levels, and this was followed up three months later to identify whether the student was more active as a result.
We also invested in Association of Colleges (AoC) Sport to support our work within the further education sector.
AoC Sport engages the audiences at the heart of our strategic priorities, and supports our aim to increase the number of children and young people who have a positive attitude towards sport and physical activity.
We've compiled and explained a host of research to help you support children and young people to get physically active.
Support for teachers in secondary schools to access professional development opportunities and put pupils' enjoyment at the heart of PE and school sport.
This investment guide explains our approach to tackling inactivity, with support and guidance for organisations who'd like to work with us.
