Schools Work

Playfun

Playfun is a local initiative and was set up in 1993 because of the low levels of physical fitness and obesity in school age children. Sessions are designed to improve general levels of fitness in young people and are run in First and Middle schools throughout the Borough to compliment the National Curriculum. Action Sport and the YMCA work together to offer local schools a quality service in sporting opportunities in a range of sports and activities, from cricket, basketball, multi-sport sessions to dance and gymnastics.

Big Lottery Funded Sessions

In partnership with the Redditch School Sports Partnership and funded through Big Lottery Funding, Action Sport deliver sessions targeted specifically for certain groups of young people at all age groups.

The partnership wanted to re-engage disaffected pupils in its schools – to improve attendance, behaviour and concentration together with their co-ordination and self esteem. Following thorough initial and on-going consultation with all the targeted young people the programme was developed by the School Sports Partnership to introduce the following nine, new out-of-hour activities:

• Multi Skill Clubs for pupils who found lunchtimes difficult.
• Breakfast Skipping Clubs for pupils in Years 1-4 who had health problems associated with lack of exercise or poor nutrition, or whose attendance was below 85%
• Basketball Clubs, mostly before school, for boys from years 3 – 6 and 9 who had poor concentration and lacked motivation to learn.
• Dance for pupils in years 5-9 with poor co-ordination and/or low self esteem (selected by SENCO’s ,PE teachers and form tutors).
• Pop aerobics sessions for disaffected girls in Years 9-11
• Multi-Sports activities for Key Stage 2 Pupils who had not taken part in school sport and were showing signs if developing health issues.
• Swimming activities for pupils with statements of SEN and/or low self esteem.
• Table Tennis for pupils who have poor participation in PE
• Ultimate Frisbee for pupils who are showing signs of health problems due to non participation in PE and/or pupils who don’t normally access out-of-hour activities.

The scheme is proving to be successful at meeting the target groups and purpose.

“The whole impact from the PESSCL (PE School Sport and Club Links) project has been excellent for our school. The lottery activities have engaged targeted pupils and have had a greater impact on whole school issues such as lunchtime behaviour.” Headteacher