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Marking Handover and the London 2012 Education Programme
School and college celebrations across the South West marked Paralympic Handover and heralded the start of the London 2012 Education Programme. Take a look at some of the highlights of celebrations in the region and find out about the online resources available from ‘Get Set’ which went live on 18 September 2008. Visit www.london2012.com/getset

UK School Games
View photos of some of the Sport England and CSP volunteers supporting the 2008 event in Bristol and Bath.

Physical Education and Sport Strategy for Young People - Bulletin 1
The first of what is hoped to be a once a term operational bulletin for all matters relating to the new Physical Education and Sport Strategy for Young People (PESSYP). Sport England and the Youth Sport Trust are united in their commitment to keep both the school and community sport networks abreast of key developments as they happen. Read updates on a range of initiatives and programmes, which collectively comprise the 5 Hour Offer for young people, which the Prime Minister launched in July 2007. Each sectionhas content relevant to both SSPs and CSPs

New National Strategy
Infrastructure
Breaking news
Club Links
Coaching
Competition
Continuing Professional Development
Disability
Extending Activities
Leadership and Volunteering
Education News

Download Bulletin 1

Shine
Tom Daley is a 14 year old diving champion, who is one of our biggest hopefuls for the Olympics in 2012 and was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2007. "I saw a group of divers at my local swimming pool when I was just seven years old and thought I'd like to have a go myself. I guess you could say I have a natural talent for the sport as just over a year later I got spotted and now I'm preparing to represent my country at the Beijing and London Olympics! I'd encourage anyone with a talent, whatever it is, to show it to others whenever they get the chance. Signing up for Shine week is an ideal way to do this and gives young people across England the chance to show their friends, teachers, local community and all the other schools in England just what their special talent is. With so many people to show, you never know - you could get spotted just like I did". Visit www.shineweek.co.uk

Inspiring School Sport
Youth Sport Trust has launched the Inspiring School Sport website, . Whether you are a young person, parent, carer or teacher, the exciting new website contains ideas from PE and sport to inspire you and those around you.

£3m Sports Development for Tavistock College
Tavistock will soon be boasting competition standard facilities for Devon's future Olympians. Tavistock College will have a competition-standard athletics track, full size all weather football pitch and a redevelopedsports centre, including an activity hall, air conditioned dance studio and fitness suite, upgraded and additional changing rooms, a new reception area and community cafeteria. The outside facilities are due to be completed Autumn 2008, with the indoor facilities opening Summer 2009. This major scheme has been funded by a broad partnership including Tavistock College, Devon County Council, Sport England, the Football Foundation, the National Sports Foundation, Kelly College, Tavistock Athletics Club, West Devon Borough Council and Tavistock Town Council, alongside local community fund raising. View press release.

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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