Durham-based New Brancepeth Primary School has been announced
as one of the first winners of the School Games Impact Awards, for their innovative project that looked to target local young people and encourage them to be physically active.
A network of School Games Organisers (SGOs) and School Games County
Alliances have worked alongside children’s charity the Youth Sport Trust in
delivering three distinct levels of competition since the Games inception in 2010 -
ranging from intra -inter school activity.
Launched for the academic year 2021/22, the Impact Awards are designed to
celebrate the impact achieved for young people by the network of local School
Games Organisers, Active Partnerships and Schools.
There are five categories based on the overall School Games’ outcomes, plus a
special category for 2020/21 based on the Commonwealth Games. The winners
were announced at the Youth Sport Trust House at Prince Albert High School in
Birmingham on August 3, as part of a celebration of all activity that had been made
possible thanks to a £2 million investment from Sport England from Birmingham
2022 legacy funding.
New Brancepeth Primary School won the Opportunity Supporters Award. This
recognises activities that give young people the opportunity to focus on character
development and employment skills through taking up leadership or volunteer roles.
New Brancepeth Primary School realised that after almost two years of restrictions
and lockdowns that their student’s physical fitness, teamwork skills had been
impacted. The Senior Leadership Team and PE Lead, Amelia Robertson, decided to
allot time within the timetable to prioritise 30 minutes of physical activity every day.
They rotated five different activities each week depending on the skills and areas
that needed improvement. Amelia and colleagues worked with the School Games
and other partners to identify the needed areas of physical development based on
assessments of their pupils.
Amelia Robertson commented; “The positive impact we’ve had on our local children
and young people involved in the activity is reward enough, however we are
delighted to have won an Impact Award. Hopefully the activity we created will now be
replicated by others across the network, or inspire them to try something similar to
help increase children and young people’s physical activity.
Clare Warburton, Development Manager at Youth Sport Trust and Impact Awards
judge commented; “We received over a hundred entries across the academic year
but New Brancepeth Primary School’s really stood out.
“It was clear from the results of the activity and feedback from the panel of judges
that real positive impact had been made. By working with children and young people
and wider partners, the team have created an innovative opportunity to engage with
their target audience, support children to feel a sense of belonging and it’s a great
example worthy of celebration.”
Charlie Crane, Senior Manager in the Children and Young People team at Sport
England and Impact Awards judge commented; “The School Games network does
incredible work in schools across the country, which has an amazing impact on the
lives of children and young people.
“It’s so important that we celebrate and shout about the fantastic work those in the
network, such as the team at New Brancepeth Primary School do. Not just so we
can all see the scope of what the network achieve together, but also to allow the
School Games to continue to grow and adapt to changing needs of young people.”
To find out more about the School Games Impact Awards, and all the winning
activity please visit: https://www.yourschoolgames.com/impact/impact-awards/
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