Gerry Sutcliffe joins Dame Kelly Holmes in the North West to help celebrate National School Sport Week
Friday, 4 June 2008
Dame Kelly Holmes will be joined by Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe in the North West on Friday July 4th to help celebrate the first ever National School Sport Week.
Dame Kelly will visit Birkenhead and Yorkshire as she continues 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, will hope to engage up to 3 million children across the country in a week of focused PE and school sport activity from Monday June 30th to Friday July 4th.
Each day will focus on a different theme and on Friday Kelly will be joined by the Sports Minister in Yorkshire to see how more young disabled people are being offered the opportunity to take part in PE and sport.
The aim of the disability strand of the PE and Sport Strategy for Young People is to enhance and extend opportunities for young disabled people. Funding has been committed through the national strategy to establish a network of 450 Multi Sport Disability Clubs across School Sport Partnerships in England, offering a club sport experience to all young disabled pupils who are not able or do not wish to access inclusive provision. These clubs will form part of a clear and progressive pathway designed to support the achievement of a five hour offer for young disabled people, and ensure that those with a higher level of ability are identified and are able to access a talent pathway.
On Friday morning, Park High Specialist Sports College, in Birkenhead, will stage its “Breaking the Barriers: Festival of Sport”, whereby sports leaders will support their peers from partner special schools where young people have severe learning difficulties.
From there, Kelly will join Gerry Sutcliffe at The Sports Barn, in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, for the Pennine School Sport Partnership Year 4 Sports Week – a multi skills and multi sport event with an emphasis on health and getting fit for 2012.
Minister for Sport Gerry Sutcliffe said: “We’ve got some fantastic role models in sport but National School Sport Week isn’t just about finding the next Paula Radcliffe, Amir Khan or Ade Adepitan. It’s about having fun with sport and discovering something new. Of course we want to encourage talented hopefuls to compete at the top of their game but if we can introduce more young people to the possibilities of sport, whatever their level, then we are making a major step forward in shaping a more active and healthy nation as we head towards 2012.”
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 will be shaped by schools and pupils themselves, who have been set the task of coming up with the most innovative activity during the week. Activity will focus 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 is an opportunity for new initiatives and developments in PE and school sport to be launched in schools. This summer we will see 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 will provide 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.