" Welcome to the May edition...
Spring may be slow in arriving but there is a real sense of things moving forward across the county and there are many examples of this featured in this newsletter. The establishment of Community Sport and Physical Activity Networks continues to progress and we anticipate that Stroud and Gloucester will soon be able to submit their action plan and funding application to Sport England. Congratulations to Gloucester City on being selected to host the 2009 European Synchronised Swimming Championships. Hopefully this will be the first of many quality events that we will see hosted in the County in the run up to 2012.
Our Board met on April 24th (click here for a link to the minutes) and I am pleased to announce that our 2008 – 09 Business Plan has been approved (click here for a link to the Business Plan) and supported by Sport England. We still await news about Sport England’s future priorities and we expect to be able to comment in full in our July edition.
I hope that you find this edition helpful and please do not hesitate to contact us if you think that we may be able to assist you in your work".
John Stevens
Chief Executive Officer,
Active Gloucestershire
Active Gloucestershire has updated its Equality Action Plan
In September 2007, Active Gloucestershire was awarded the Preliminary Level of The Equality Standard: A Framework for Sport. The award of the Preliminary Level means Active Gloucestershire is able to demonstrate it is developing as an organisation to understand the issues and barriers faced by under-represented groups, and that we have a robust Equality Action Plan which is reviewed regularly by the Board.
As a result of the plan, several key actions have been completed including:
- CSPANs (Community Sport and Physical Activity Networks) established with representatives from priority groups, or with close relationships to them.
Introduction of a website funding section. A number of Community Sports Coaches have a significant proportion of their delivery dedicated to priority groups, including the recruitment of a full time Inclusion Community Sports Coach. Gloucestershire Disability Football Centre of Excellence established. Ongoing achievements include over 2400 children receiving FUNdamentals & Multiskills coaching through the Active Start programme. The scheme is run from SureStart Centres which are based in some of the lowest socio-economic areas of Gloucestershire.
For the latest version click here.
If you require further information please contact Stuart McQuaid, Equality Standard Lead Officer on 01242 715244 or emailsmcquaid@glos.ac.uk
ASDA Sporting Chance
Launching summer 2008, this campaign will inspire thousands of children throughout the UK to get involved with sport. It has the backing of the key bodies in UK sport and delivers against Government’s ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda.
Responding direct to London 2012, the long term commitment will enhance community sport participation through to 2013…
Following a successful pilot in Manchester plans are currently being developed to roll the programme out across the country from Summer 2008. The campaign will run for the next 6 years and create a lasting sporting legacy for our young people. A number of leisure providers such as Greenwich Leisure Ltd, DC Leisure and Parkwood Leisure have already signed up, with a total of 50 private / public / trust-owned and LA (Local Authority) run organisations involved. However there is still the opportunity to be involved to fill gaps in delivery.
The commitment from leisure providers is to provide free child sport sessions in return for the Asda vouchers distributed in store.
The benefits for the providers are:
- publicity and association in store and on the website
- link with business in the community and access to Asda shoppers
- contact details of the individual taking part in the sport to try and capture their long term participation in sport.
- the long term nature of the campaign – every school holiday (excluding Christmas) up until 2013
- first chance linkages and opportunities with the South West Regional Media campaign “Lets Go” being run by Sport England and the South West Media Group
- potential volunteer opportunities in future years for Asda staff to help and join in and maybe even complete training courses to assist in delivery of the programmes
Local leisure providers already signed up to this campaign to offer "Try A Sport" sessions are GL1 and Oxstalls Tennis Centre. Other providers have been approached and are keen to get involved. If you are interested in this programme please email kfarr@glos.ac.uk at Active Gloucestershire to find out how to be involved.
A full list of leisure providers signed up to the campaign will be available on our website very soon, so keep looking to find out where you can get your free "Try A Sport" sessions from.
Forest of Dean Community Sports Coaches Win Top Tennis Award
Chris Davis, Active Gloucestershire Tennis Community Sports Coach (CSC) along with his coaching partner, Bas Godden, also an Active Gloucestershire CSC were awarded the Chris Reid Memorial Trophy for Outstanding Contribution to Tennis Development in the County of Gloucestershire by Stuart Smith, President of the Lawn Tennis Association. Stuart made the presentation at Oxstalls Tennis Centre in Gloucester on Wednesday 12th March.
Chris and Bas won the award in recognition of between them more than 45 years coaching children and young people in Gloucestershire. They work with a highly successful junior tennis squad based at the Five Acres campus in Berry Hill, Forest of Dean.
Chris who also works as the Deputy Head of Gloucestershire County Council's Youth Service, said: "I'm particularly honoured to receive this award. The trophy is in recognition of all the hard work that players, parents and volunteers have made towards raising the profile of tennis in the Forest of Dean. The thing I love about coaching tennis is that we try and make it as accessible as possible to all young people irrespective of ability."
Councillor Paul McLain, Cabinet Member for Young People, said: "Chris is a real star. This is typical of the 110% commitment he gives. I'm sure he'll be telling us he's discovered the next Andy Murray before long!"
Forest of Dean Sport Skillz
Active Gloucestershire and the Forest of Dean School Sport Partnership held their first holiday camp of the year entitled Sport Skillz on Thursday 17th and Friday 18th April at Heywood Community School. The camp covered a variety of sports and multi skills which proved an instant success with the participants involved.
The holiday camp, established by Active Gloucestershire’s Community Sports Coach Supervisor, Alison Croad, in conjunction with Heywood's Head of Physical Education, Pauline Brain, provided an inclusive sporting opportunity for children aged from 8 to 13.
The two days were coordinated by Alison and members of Active Gloucestershire’s Community Sports Coach team and provided the participants with the opportunity to receive professional coaching in sports such as football and athletics, as well as improve FUNdamental movements, such as Speed Agility and Quickness. The participants also had the chance to take part in activities such as Ultimate Frisbee and Tri-Golf. The Sport Skillz scheme was also responsible for coordinating a two day Gifted and Talented camp which involved the local primary schools nominating pupils who demonstrated a high level of performance in sport.
At the end of the action packed days parents were readily enquiring about future Sport Skillz holiday camps and said their children were “filled with enthusiasm.”
Sport Skillz will soon be coming to a venue near you. Please see our website www.activegloucestershire.org for future details!!
Badminton Bonanza
Chosen Hill School hosted the Yehlex Badminton Bonanza on Sunday 20th and Sunday 27th April 2008. This is the second Bonanza to be run in the county for social standard players by Badminton England and Active Gloucestershire. Juniors – Sunday 20th April 2008
The first day saw a hive of activity with U14 and U16 boys' singles and boys' doubles events taking place. The games in the junior section of the event were extremely close with a number of games going down to the wire. The winners of the junior section of the Badminton Bonanza were:
U14/U16 Boys' Singles – Mark Broekman
U14/U16 Boys' Doubles – Thomas Broekman and Matthew Bailey
Adults – Sunday 27th April 2008
The second day of the Bonanza saw social men’s doubles, women’s doubles and Mixed doubles pairs competing for the title of Gloucestershire Badminton Bonanza winners 2008. Matches were again very close, and the mixed doubles event was not decided until the last games of the day with one group nearly being decided on points. The results of the adult event were;
Men's Doubles – Muraza Khahu and Niraj Paul
Mixed Doubles – Garnet Earl and Jackie Hart
Women's Doubles – Priya Shah and Alison Phillippe
Congratulations go to all the winners and a big thank you to all who participated on the day!
MEND
What is Mend? It stands for Mind, Exercise, Nutrition and …Do it! and is a project funded by Sainsbury’s and supported by 27 sports colleges throughout England. The Forest of Dean Sports College at Heywood Community School became involved in the project after Director of Sport at the college Neal Cornish attended a conference. Neal signed up the Forest of Dean project with a clear vision of who he would ask to act as exercise trainer for the project and contacted Dave Lucas, Athletics and Multi Skills Community Sports Coach with Active Gloucestershire. Having fought a weight problem all his life, Dave saw this as a great opportunity to support young people with weight problems. The MEND mission is to enable a significant measurable and sustained reduction in childhood obesity. The target age groups would be years 6 – 8. After the first two projects were held at Heywood School the third one is being held at nearby Lakers School. The Forest of Dean District council have also supported the programme with facility use.
The programme is about positive changes, targets and rewards rather than targeting bad foods and "don’ts". It requires a good deal of commitment from the parents and children. There are two 2 hour sessions for 10 weeks. For the first hour the children are in the gym with the exercise trainer while the parents look at nutritional aspects. There is then an hour of target development with both children and parents, as well as quizzes and games relating to nutrition. The exercise section is based on TOPS multi skill activities. The aim is non-competitive ways of encouraging the children to enjoy sport, as most of them where not involved in much sport at school. The multi skill approach gives them the chance to develop individual sports skills. These skills can be used for a variety of activities. Everything is carefully planned so as not to risk disillusionment. The children worked on cheer leading routines, culminating in a display for parents on the final evening.
At the start and end of the project the children do a step test and various body measurements. The results are sent to Sainsbury’s for analysis. Both the previous projects' results have been positive. The measurement results remain personal to the parents and children. We also measure subjectively seeing the increase in fitness and more especially confidence.
Goalball Tournament
The last day of lectures in the Adapted Physical Activity module at the University of Gloucestershire saw students and staff battle it out in a Goalball Tournament at the Oxstalls Campus.
A brief background on Goalball:
Hans Lorenzen and Sepp Reindle developed this sport to help rehabilitate blind war veterans. Goalball is a three-a-side game played indoors with tactile markings on the floor. Each player will wear eyeshades to make it a level playing field and the ball used will have internal bells to locate it during play.
Goalball first appeared at the Paralympic games in 1976 and it is now played a cross the world and enjoyed by the visually impaired community, the sport in the UK is governed by the British Blind Sports (BBS).
For further information on the sport visit www.goalball.co.uk
With nine teams in the tournament competition was fierce and after the first round the 'Active Gloucestershire All Stars' team had lost their first game to 'Team United' 2 - 0.
'Active Gloucestershire All Stars' beat 'Team White' 2 - 0 in the semi-final and were in the final! The score was 0 - 0 after full time and went into sudden death! In the closing stages it was 1 - 1 with a late winning goal coming from Mike Squire of 'Active Gloucestershire All Stars' to win the tournament 2 - 1!
