Commonwealth Games Minister Nigel Huddleston visited Prince Albert High School in Birmingham on Wednesday this week, as guest of honour at a ceremony celebrating the impact a country-wide network has made on children and young through the inspiration of Birmingham 2022.
Up to 211,000 children and young people across England have been connected to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and encouraged to be more physically active, thanks to new opportunities provided by the School Games network since the beginning of the school year.
Sport England invested over £2 million of Birmingham 2022 legacy funding into the School Games, a programme delivered by children’s charity the Youth Sport Trust, with an aim to inspire children and young people to be physically active for life through positive experiences of daily activity and competition.
The School Games Celebration Event was taking place to recognise the School Games Organisers, Active Partnerships and Schools working across the country to achieve these game changing results:
- 211,000 opportunities have been created for children and young people to engage with positive sport experiences and take part in physical activity
- The programme also actively engaged young people with Special Education Needs or disability (SEND) and those from Ethnically Diverse Communities (14% and 16% respectively), driving equal opportunities to access sport and physical activity
- The programme engaged girls and boys alike with a split of (49% and 51% respectively getting active
- In addition to the health benefits, the programme saw children and young people develop key social skills, good mental wellbeing, and life skills such as leadership and resilience
- The work by the School Games reached across England with 1,929 events taking place
The School Games’ goal to use Birmingham 2022 as a moment to engage young people with positive experiences of sport and physical activity was essential to tackling the issue of inactive young people. This followed Sport England research, which found there were 94,000 fewer active children and young people in 2020-21 compared to the year before the COVID-19 pandemic with those from less affluent families remaining the least active, and this differential gap has widened since the start of the pandemic.
Each local School Games representative, called a School Games Organiser, Active Partnerships and the London Youth Games received funding to enable them to collaborate and create Birmingham 2022-inspired opportunities. This ranged from Commonwealth Games Festivals, visits from past athletes or excursions to outdoor activity centres.
Sport England has also invested Birmingham 2022 legacy funding into this year’s School Games National Finals, the UK’s biggest multi-sport event for young people, taking place at Loughborough University in September. The event provides opportunities for young people both on and off the field of play, thanks to a range of experiences including education, volunteering and competing.
To find out more about the School Games, and the positive impact they provide children and young people visit: https://www.yourschoolgames.com/
