Welcome to Blessed George Napier Sports Partnership

The School Sports Partnership is now in its second year. Significant progress in year 1 saw the partnership move ever closer to achieving the Government’s Public Service Agreement target set for 2006. It states that 75% of all 5 to 16 year olds should spend a minimum of 2 hours a week on high quality PE and school sport, within and beyond the curriculum. At the end of the 2005 academic year, 70% of children from across the BGN School Sports Partnership were achieving this target (link: 2005 Annual Review).

In order to attain the ‘high quality’ aspect of PE and School Sport, extensive training has been laid on for teachers and coaches from across the partnership. Nearly 100 teachers have already accessed training in the delivery of high quality Key Stage 1 and 2 Games; 80 have attended courses in developing primary Gymnastics; 45 teachers received certification in the delivery of swimming; 40 followed a programme of Outdoor and Adventurous training; and a further 40 teachers achieved a RFU Community Award following their attendance at a Tag rugby training day. (Link: teacher training photos & brief descriptions) (small photo of teachers in action)

In addition by February 2006, all 33 Primary and Special school PE Co-ordinators will have attended 5 professional PE modules, and will be amongst the first in the country to receive a nationally recognised Curriculum Leaders Award.

Continual professional development opportunities have also been available to Secondary PE teachers, much of it focused on developing and deploying young leaders and volunteers – a key national and local target for 2006 (Link: Photos of Young leaders in action). PE specialists have also met on a regular basis to discuss and share good practice aimed at further developing high quality teaching and learning within their own schools.

Significantly, all of this training has been provided free of charge through the School Sports Partnership.

The provision of high quality competition and performance has remained high on the agenda. 35% of children participated in high quality competition and performance throughout last year, much of it organised through the ‘family school’ structure. These included competitions and festivals in cross country, football, dance, netball, athletics, cricket and multi-sports. Many were organised in association with local authority sports development and community clubs. In several cases children benefited from expert tuition provided by local sports coaches. (Photo of pupils engaged in competition/festival)

The number of out of school hours/extra curricular clubs open to partnership children has increased considerably since the onset of the programme. A £76,000 Big Lottery grant secured earlier this year will help to extent this provision. Funding is being targeted largely at those young people who not currently participate in out of school hours sport. It will help to provide vital coaching, training, equipment and transport for a range of new and exciting activities. (Link: Big Lottery press release July 2005).

Training and support has not been limited purely to teaching staff. An extensive programme of training has also been provided to Lunchtime Supervisors and Teacher Assistants, in an attempt to increase the amount of high quality informal activity offered to children at breaktimes, lunchtimes, and pre and post school times. (Photo of Lunchtime Supervisors) (link: LS training).

In order to build on current achievements, plans are now well underway to expand the Partnership. Our intention is to secure funding to ensure that the remaining 2 Secondary, 13 Primary and 2 Special schools from across the Cherwell district, are fully incorporated into the scheme by September 2006. This will bring the total number of Partnership schools to 54 and children involved to approximately 18,350! (Link: Partnership map)

Our aim is to make a real difference to the lives of all local young people through the powerful and exciting medium of sport!

Carl Hamilton, Partnership Development Manager