On Wednesday 3rd July 2024, 20 schools from around Rotherham, including four of WPT’s primary schools, were invited to attend the very first ‘Inspire and Engage’ School Games Festival of Sport at Herringthorpe Stadium. Schools selected 15 children from Y4/5 to experience some new activities, in the hope that they may be encouraged to take up a new sport! The event was funded by Yorkshire Sport, with the aim to reward schools that have been heavily engaged in the School Games programme over the year, and to target children who would benefit from a positive experience in sport. The 300 children approached each 30-minute activity full of enthusiasm, and were active non-stop!
Chloe Turton from the School Games team said, “We are so proud of the children’s attitude towards trying something new and hope that this positive experience will have an effect on their willingness to take part in physical activity going forwards”.
David Walker, School Games Organiser and Sports Development Manager for WPT said, “The aim of the funding was to deliver a project that was based on local need, with our team deciding that the goal was to provide a targeted event for those who were less active and who hadn’t accessed the School Games previously. The intended outcome for the festival was to engage and expose the children to a variety of different activities, to inspire and engage them to be more physically active in their day to day lives. Having YSF capture pupil voice for us on the day really showcased the importance of the event, with anxious and fearful feedback pre-event turning to happy and elated feedback post-event. The captured feedback showed that every one of the ten activities was someone’s favourite activity throughout the day which gave real insight to the importance of variety, giving children the best possible chance to continue their physical activity journey.”
The festival was also linked to the up-coming CCoC project, where in 2025, Rotherham will become the world’s first Children’s Capital of Culture! All children who participated were given a t-shirt with the CCoC logo, with the hope to spread the message of the fantastic work they do. As well as sport, the CCoC will include dance, drama, food, film and more! Visit Children’s Captial of Culture for more information.
Ross Inglis, School Games Organiser added, “The event was a huge success in bringing Rotherham Children’s Capital of Culture to the forefront of the physical activity offer as part of the Rotherham School Games initiative. We are hopeful this event can be used as a catalyst for CCoC within Rotherham in order to increase awareness so that by 2025, children and young people will have been exposed to some form of the CCoC. Throughout the remainder of this year and next, we aim to work further alongside key stakeholders in order to continue to increase physical activity levels within Rotherham, as well as developing opportunities for children to participate in a wide range of activities”.
Thank you to everyone who attended!
