Young Leaders Shine Across Northumberland
Wensleydale & Deleval Middle Schools (Year 7 & 8) Young Sport Leaders assisting Blyth/Bedlington 'SSP Year 5 Netball Tournament
2008 Increase Beyond Expectations
Last year Northumberland Healthy Schools and the School Sport Partnerships (SSPs) jointly trained in excess of 150 Key Stage 3 pupils to be Young Sports Leaders.
In 2008 all six Schools Sport Partnerships have again, with support from Northumberland Healthy Schools, worked incredibly well in rolling out this highly successful and popular leadership award to Middle Schools across the County - increasing its impact on levels of physical activity significantly.
School Sport Partnership Managers have been feeding back impressive impact data to Andy Brown, who stated that “This has proved to be a fantastic year for the young leaders programme in Northumberland and we are blown away by the astounding number of 819 Young Leaders trained since September! The statistics are amazing and these talented young people are not only making a difference in terms of promoting, supporting and encouraging positive physical activity in their own schools but are also often supporting their school sport partnerships by assisting younger pupils at festivals and competitions”
Angela Parsons, School Sport Coordinator (SSCo) who led training in the Blyth Bedlington Partnership said;
“The schools and students involved have really benefited from this programme and feedback from pupils and members of staff supported by the leaders at lunchtimes and at our Festivals has been highly complimentary. The Healthy Schools Young leader’s uniforms (T shirts) have been a real bonus. The staff and students love them as they build leader’s self esteem, give their role a high and visible profile and create a sense of belonging.”
Franki Clark (Ashington SSCo) added;
“The Year 7 & 8 young leaders were deployed at the Ashington Partnership inaugural healthy lifestyle event where they supported physical activities such as skipping, dance and cricket and also helped the younger children to make fruit and vegetable faces. They gained invaluable experience at leading over 500 first school children in an action packed fun day”
The 42 Northumberland Schools, who fully embraced the award by identifying potential leaders via a clear and fair appointment process and supporting them in their roles, reported some fantastic results.
Impact was seen, not only in terms of increased opportunities and levels of physical activity but also in more positive lunchtime behaviour and in the confidence and self esteem of the young people involved.
With 2007-2008 being the year of leadership our young Northumberland Sports Leaders have certainly captured the headlines!
More about the Young Sports Leaders UK Award:
The award is a programme of leadership training for young people, aged between 9 and 13 yrs, that promotes and supports them in working with younger children and teaching Sports leadership skills through a range of active games and positive physical activities. Its ultimate aim is to develop students’ potential leadership qualities and abilities so that they can assist their schools and school sport partnerships in:
- Increasing levels and numbers of pupils involved in purposeful Physical Activity
- Reducing any possible negative behaviour at lunchtimes e.g. Bullying, racism etc
- Improving levels of cooperation, responsibility, ownership etc
- Linking to Citizenship and G & T strands
If you would like to more information on either the award itself or indeed information on schools who have engaged in the training please contact Andy Brown or your local School Sport Partnership Manager or School Sport Coordinator
