Greater Manchester School Games Board created

By GreaterSport | 22 January 2021 | TAGS: School games, #GMSchoolGames, Children and young people, Education

The Greater Manchester School Games Programme has taken it's next step to further enhance its reach and impact for children and young people in our city-region. The newly-formed board aims to further embed the School Games within the Greater Manchester system, raising its profile on the physical activity agenda for children and young people. 

The board has been strategically positioned to create effective links, both locally and nationally, to place children and young people at the heart of sport and physical activity, and health and wellbeing agendas. Made up of 12 members, including local council public health leads, multi-academy trust leaders, teachers, school governors and School Games Organisers, the board will operate as an advisory group providing strategic oversight of the School Games programme.

The board will support both the national and local vision of the Schools games programme; to inspire the next generation of children & young people to have the confidence, competence and knowledge to reach their potential to live a healthy, physically active life. 

The board's input and knowledge will be integral this year as the Greater Manchester School Games Programme continues to operate under challenging circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Kay Statham one of the newly recruited trustees of the board and a Development Coach for Youth Sport Trust says ;

“It is fantastic news for Greater Manchester to now have the School Games Board in place. We have a wealth of experience on board to ensure we continue to evolve and keep the School Games at the heart of schools and young people across the County. There has never been a time where it is more important to get involved in regular physical activity and I'm excited to see how this board can support more young people in GM to live healthy active lifestyles.”

The latest Active Lives Children and Young People survey shows a reduction in both the activity levels and physical literacy (motivation, confidence, competence plus knowledge and understanding) of children and young people. This reduction in physical literacy could have long-term impacts upon how children feel about sport and activity, which could have lifelong impacts on their health and wellbeing.

Jess Simons, Active Children Lead at GreaterSport added;

"With the latest Active Lives data showing a reduction in children's motivation, which is measured through enjoyment, it's crucially important that we do all we can to ensure children across Greater Manchester can access a variety of activities, to help them develop a positive, lifelong relationship with physical activity. We know that the School Games can help to achieve this, which is why the board's focus to further embed the programme into health and wellbeing agendas across our city-region couldn't come at a better time. I'm excited to see the programme continue to grow and help more children and young people develop a lifelong love of physical activity.”