UPDATES

Inclusion 2024 year three review

The Inclusion 2024 year three evaluation has now been published. You can read the full report here, but some key highlights are:

• Inclusion 2024 has delivered 2,800 activities involving 55,000 interactions with pupils, school staff and other participants
• The programme has worked with a range of over 5,000 schools (exceeding the KPI of 700 schools each year)
• 47% of pupils now achieve 20 active minutes/day (compared to 39% pre-contact)

It is fantastic to see recognition of the programme from the Department of Education recognising the power of sport and physical activity and the importance of programmes like Inclusion 2024 creating a positive impact on young people with SEND. You can see the full article here.

Thank you for all of your hard work throughout the last year and for completing the termly reporting which feeds into this report. There are some excellent achievements highlighted within the report and we look forward to progressing the work of Inclusion 2024 over the next academic year.

Staff updates

In August, Maddy Hurley, joined the Youth Sport Trust team as the new Project Officer for inclusion, and we are very excited to have her on board! Maddy will be working across our inclusion programmes and will be monitoring our new email inbox at [email protected], so if you have any questions or queries, please send them through to this email.

Lead Inclusion School Networking Day - 23 September 2024

Thank you to those of you who have booked on to the lead inclusion school networking day. Please take a look at the agenda for the day here.

To help with travel, we are looking into the possibility of sharing lifts/taxis from Birmingham New Street train station. If this is something you would be interested in, please can you send your train arrival time to [email protected] and we will try to connect people together.

Communication

Over the summer the inclusion team have been seeking an alternative communication method for the Lead Inclusion School network, based on recent feedback that Microsoft Teams isn’t always accessible with school email addresses. As a result of this feedback, we will be trialling a new channel of communication called ‘ChatPro’ for this upcoming term. ChatPro is a messaging platform, utilised by YMCA and a range of schools nationwide, which can be accessed either via a website or as an app on your phone/tablet device. ChatPro has been trialled internally with our advocacy network and youth panel and has received positive feedback for its functionality.

Please see below some information surrounding the benefits of ‘ChatPro’:

• Whether using the app or accessing through the website, ChatPro uses email addresses which cannot be seen by any members of the Inclusion network unlike platforms like WhatsApp.
• The chat will be run by YST members of staff which allows for documents to be sent alongside messages. Messages can also be sent from LIS into the chat for any queries/questions.
• Notification settings can be adjusted by yourselves, and the chat will have operating hours of weekdays only to promote the wellbeing of all members.

Over the upcoming week you will receive an invitation via email to join ChatPro. Once you have received the invitation, you can use this step-by-step guide to get set up. We will be discussing this method of communication further during the conference on the Monday 23 September and will be able to answer any queries regarding the platform too.

You may have also noticed we are using a new email [email protected]. This inbox is monitored by several members of staff, so if you have any general queries, please send them through to here and one of us will get back to you as soon as we can.

Termly reporting

The deadlines for termly reporting for the 24/25 academic year are as follows:

• Thursday 19 December 2024
• Friday 28 March 2025
• Friday 11 July 2025

In preparation for completing the report, please take a look at the questions you will need to answer here.

Please note, these are the questions for all inclusion programmes, so some of them won’t be relevant to you if you are not doing that programme. To reduce the number of questions you answer, we won’t be including all of these in the December survey.

Also, click here for the partner schools template that you will submit each term as part of your reporting. This helps us to assess the reach of your inclusion work and feeds into the Inclusion 2024 reports. This year you will just submit one spreadsheet each term, rather than one for each programme.

All of the answers you provide are closely analysed by our research team and feed into the YST strategy, ensuring we direct our support to those young people who need it the most. Thank you for taking the time to do this each term, and if you have any questions about completing the surveys, please get in touch with your Development Coach, or send an email to [email protected].

UPCOMING EVENTS

Further to the save the dates sent out in the July newsletter, please see some additional MATP training dates, along with sign up links.
Please note, the timings of the Swim England Water Safety sessions have changed and they are no longer specific to regions, meaning anyone can attend any session.

SEND Shooting Stars

• SEND Shooting Stars (1) - Tuesday 22 October 2:30-4:30pm, Virtual. Please share with your networks. Sign up here
  • SEND Shooting Stars (2) - Thursday 5 December 2:30-4:30pm, Virtual. Please share with your networks. Sign up here
  • SEND Shooting Stars (3) - Tuesday 11 February 2:30-4:30pm, Virtual. Please share with your networks. Sign up here

Swim England Water Safety Training

• Swim England Water Safety (1) – Monday 4 November, 3:15-4:45pm, Virtual. Please share with your networks. Sign up here
• Swim England Water Safety (2) – Wednesday 6 November, 3:30-5pm, Virtual. Please share with your networks. Sign up here
• Swim England Water Safety (3) – Friday 8 November, 12:30-2pm, Virtual. Please share with your networks. Sign up here

Motor Activity Training Programme

Click on ‘select tickets’ on this link to see the sessions available throughout the year.

Co-create and co-deliver the School Games Regional Conferences with us

In November 2024, the School Games team are hosting four in-person regional conferences nationwide to embed the importance of tackling inequalities through creating positive experiences driven by youth engagement. Within the conference, the Inclusion team will be delivering a workshop on 'Empowering Inclusion: Leveraging SEND participation through the School Games'. The session will focus on equipping delegates with the knowledge and resources to create an inclusive environment for SEND young people. We would love the session to be co-created and co-delivered with individuals from the Lead Inclusion School network. If you'd like to be involved in this opportunity, please let us know of your availability through this Doodle Poll. Expenses will be considered for those involved in supporting delivery.

SPOTLIGHT

Watch Channel 4's 'Equal Play'

Channel 4 are currently streaming a powerful documentary called ‘Equal Play’, demonstrating the transformative power of sport in young disabled people’s lives. The Lead Inclusion School network was involved in identifying the young people involved and some were interviewed as part of the creation process. Thank you to those involved, and we hope you enjoy this inspiring story, click here to watch.

RESOURCES

Send Inclusion Toolkit

The SEND Inclusion Toolkit has now been launched on the School Games website, and can be viewed here. This toolkit has been created in collaboration with the seven National Disability Sport Organisations (NDSOs). The toolkit provides an overview of different special educational needs and disabilities, provides top tips on working with young people with SEND and signposts to further training with the support of each NDSO.

Guide Dogs Fund Race

Guide Dogs have produced a Fund Race pack to support teachers with creating inclusive activities for children with a visual impairment. Please see below for further details:

Fund Race is a track race or obstacle course for students, parents and teachers – with a twist. Everyone in the race is blindfolded and uses a rope or partner as their guide. To help you get started, we’ve created a free, downloadable pack, including activities co-produced with Twinkl, which offers resources for the race itself, ideas on inclusive warm up games, guidance for teachers on including learners with a vision impairment in PE, and an assembly to introduce the idea of inclusion to the whole school community.

We’ve created this challenge, especially for schools, to start important conversations about sight loss and being more inclusive and accessible. In the UK today, there are around 28,000 young people under 18 who have a vision impairment. We’re best known for our incredible guide dogs, but we also support thousands of children across the UK who have a vision impairment, and their families. Fund Race was developed after hearing different stories of how schools can make their sports activities more inclusive and is supported by habilitation experts at Guide Dogs who work with schools every day.

Not only can young people with a vision impairment enjoy Fund Race, but it offers a chance for their sighted peers to begin to understand some of the challenges of living with sight loss. Take on our sports day challenge. Find out more at guidedogs.org.uk/FundRace. Ready, set... Fund Race!

Find Your Greatness – Olympic and Paralympic Athlete recruitment campaign

This summer an athlete recruitment campaign called Find Your Greatness launched in line with the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The aim is to identify 16-24 year olds (particularly those who have not had opportunities to try different sports), who may have the potential to become an elite athlete. Applications are now open and will close on Monday 14 October.

You can get involved by hosting a pre-application testing session with your students, perhaps on your return in September. Students then simply need to input their test scores directly to the application form by Monday 14 October. If you can’t conduct a testing session but you’d still like to promote the campaign to your students, we’ll send you campaign materials to print or share with students digitally. This is an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for your students to participate in an athlete recruitment programme, and you could be the catalyst to them finding their greatness.

Please register your interest here to receive a testing session plan and promotional materials: www.findyourgreatness.co.uk