YST in the news

Tuesday 22 June 2010

Steve Grainger, Chief Executive of the Youth Sport Trust, has outlined the “massive improvements” in school sport, particularly coaching, over the last 20 years.

Speaking in an interview with the Times Educational Supplement, Steve highlighted how in the early 1990s the provision of PE was not up to scratch.

“We were concerned about what was happening and that kids weren’t getting the chance to do more sport,” he said.

“We went through a real decline in the Nineties, and when we formed it was at an all time low.”

“At that time, 23 per cent of kids were getting two hours of PE a week."

“Now it’s 90 per cent,” he added.

And it’s not just the traditional sports such as football, rugby and cricket that have benefitted from this vast increase in participation.

Steve outlined that when the Youth Sport Trust was set up in 1994, the average number of sports being offered at school was six; now it’s 17.

The article also points to there now being more than 500 secondary schools with sport as a specialism; 98 per cent of schools offer football; minority sports such as mountaineering, sailing and martial arts are also taught; and on average schools have links to eight listed sports clubs.