Sky Living For Sport - the school sport initiative which has proved successful in re-engaging youngsters – is to widen its reach to thousands more secondary schools, through a new package of resources, designed to help teachers bring the power of sport to young people.
The campaign to promote the resource, supported by Darren Campbell, Ambassador for Sky Living For Sport, will begin in earnest on Thursday 15 November 2007, when teachers from across the capital will come together at Regent’s College, London, to get their first taste of the new Sky Living For Sport Continued Professional Development (CPD) tool.
The tool is the latest strand of Sky Living For Sport, an initiative run by the Youth Sport Trust and BSkyB to inspire young people who are at risk of opting out of school life, either through poor attendance or lack of confidence.
Due to the proven success of the initiative, which has so far involved some 600 schools and benefited over 14,000 young people across the UK, the CPD tool has been developed to reach a further 3,000 secondary schools who are not yet participating in Sky Living For Sport, by equipping teachers with the resources and know-how to run the initiative themselves.
Teachers who access the tool will attend training sessions with existing Sky Living For Sport practitioners, and receive a tool-kit of resources on a CD ROM of downloadable materials, with guidance and information on implementing the initiative.
Twenty-one training sessions, developed by the Youth Sport Trust together with teachers who have already taken part in Sky Living For Sport, will be delivered across England in the next few months with plans to extend the workshops to Scotland and Northern Ireland over the coming academic year.
Latest research on Sky Living For Sport, published in September 2007, and conducted by the Institute of Youth Sport at Loughborough University, shows that young people participating in the programme show improved behaviour and increased self-confidence, and are overwhelmingly positive in their comments about the initiative. Over 80 per cent of teachers report that their pupils have benefited from Sky Living For Sport activities.
Darren Campbell, Sky Living For Sport Ambassador, says: “Sky Living For Sport has proved such a huge success that we wanted to make sure it had the potential to reach every young person across the country. This new training tool gives teachers the opportunity to become, as I have, ambassadors for Sky Living For Sport and bring its principles and ethos into their school to help build young people’s confidence and improve their attitude to school life.“
Ben Stimson, Director of Reputation and Responsibility at Sky, says: “We’re extremely proud of the way Sky Living For Sport has impacted on the lives of so many young people, so we want to take the principles of the existing initiative and offer it to a much wider audience.”
Sue Campbell, Chair of the Youth Sport Trust, said: “We’ve been delighted to see Sky Living For Sport make a real difference in schools, which is why we have created the CPD resource, giving more teachers the freedom to run the initiative in their school in a way that best meets the needs of their young people, whilst supporting them in their professional development. The CPD tool will ensure the experience and knowledge of the teachers and young people who have achieved so much through Sky Living For Sport over the last four years can be of benefit to many more of our young people.”
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Press enquiries: Please contact Julia Pitman or Patricia Orr at Third Sector PR on 020 7592 1990 / 07980 623083
Notes to Editors
1. Darren Campbell is available for interview on Thursday 15 November 2007. Please contact Julia Pitman or Patricia Orr at Third Sector PR on 020 7592 1990 / 07889 140139 to make arrangements.
2. A pdf of the Sky Living For Sport Continued Professional Development (CPD) tool is available from the numbers above.
3. For more information about Sky Living For Sport, visit sky.com/lfs or www.youthsporttrust.org
4. The Youth Sport Trust is a registered charity established in 1994 to build a brighter future for young people through sport. Its mission is to support the education and development of all young people through PE and sport.
5. Sky Living For Sport forms part of Sky's wider commitment to the community and learning. To find out more about Sky’s Bigger Picture initiatives go to www.jointhebiggerpicture.com.
6. Sky is the UK’s leading entertainment company and operates the most comprehensive multichannel, multi-platform television service in the UK and Ireland. Around 21 million viewers in 8.6 million households enjoy an unprecedented choice of movies, news, entertainment and sports channels and interactive services on Sky Digital, the UK and Ireland's most watched digital television service.