Sporting Chance - nasen Connect March 2022

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FEATURE

TEACHING & LEARNING

Sporting chance to inspire young people Vicci Wells from the Youth Sport Trust examines how the Winter Paralympics, and a new, nationwide initiative, can engage more young people in sport. his month saw the Winter Paralympics take place, with athletes competing in 78 different events across six sports in two disciplines; snow sports and ice sports.

Experiencing the performance of worldleading Para-athletes can directly and positively impact on young people’s motivations towards their own participation in PE and school sport. Indeed, inspiration is often cited as the reason why national sporting achievement and major sporting events are so important.

Connected to this, and the upcoming ‘summer of sport’, which sees the city of Birmingham host the 2022 Commonwealth Games, a new Department for Education funded initiative, ‘Inclusion 2024’,

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will build upon the ways that inspirational sporting events help to engage pupils through inclusive sport programmes and festivals reaching every county in England.

Our charity, the Youth Sport Trust, is delighted to be able to work alongside nasen as part of a consortium of organisations to support thousands of schools

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to improve PE and school sport for young people with SEND. Inclusion 2024 will aim to improve provision of inclusive PE for 150,000 young people through training, advice, and guidance to 5,000 schools.

The Youth Sport Trust’s Chief Executive, Ali Oliver MBE, believes BIO this is fundamental.

“Good quality and inclusive PE VICCI WELLS and school sport should be a Vicci is Head of Sport universal entitlement for every and SEND Inclusion for children’s charity the young person. For children with Youth Sport Trust. She is special educational needs and also a Chair of Governors disabilities, play and sport are not and MAT Director. You only important to their health and can read her blog, wellbeing, but they provide a sense the Youngish School of belonging and foster an inclusive Governor, here: environment throughout the school.” https://bit.ly/3HIgs1C. The festivals and programmes of In her spare time, sport will involve creating shared Vicci is an ultraexperiences to help develop marathon runner. friendships between young people, providing opportunities for schools and communities to promote inclusion and diversity. New resources have been co-created with young people, placing youth voice at the heart to ensure inspiring, accessible, and meaningful experiences.

These resources provide creative ways of

To get involved in Inclusion 2024, and access the new resources connected to the Winter Paralympics please visit https://bit.ly/3g04S5w

delivering winter para-sports in a school or outdoors, providing fun and enjoyment for all.

Marjorie McClure, a special school in Bromley, is an example of a school using para sports to engage all pupils. The school places the Paralympic and Olympic values at the heart of school culture. All young people can join in at their own level and they are given multiple opportunities to shape, participate, lead, and even film events. The impact seen in young people has been centered around increased selfesteem, interest, and a sense of belonging, with pupils exposed to new sports and to more positive and relatable role models.

Pupil achievement is celebrated across the school and para sports have since been introduced into the PE curriculum.

Elite athletes that have participated in an international sporting event such as the Paralympics can often be a much-needed motivator for young people with SEND. Our research report, the Class of 2035 (https://bit.ly/3HIR383), conducted by Foresight Factory, found that just 33 per cent of young people with a disability say their teacher or sports coach inspires them to be more active, compared with 42 per cent of those children who do not have a disability.

The inspiration that sporting events provide can motivate young people; every single athlete has a story that involves confidence, aspiration, resilience, or empathy. For example, research conducted following the most recent Paralympic and Olympic Games highlighted their impact, finding that 47 per cent of people questioned believe that athletes are important role models who can inspire their generation. Meanwhile, one in four young people said that hearing athletes’ stories and how they have overcome challenges can help them in their lives.

T O P T IPS F RO M A PARALYM PIAN Kate Grey, a Youth Sport Trust Athlete Mentor, Inclusion 2024 ambassador and former Paralympic swimmer, believes in the motivating power of sport. “I am incredibly passionate about providing fun and inclusive activities for young people of all abilities. Particularly during these times.

“People with disabilities are more likely to be less active and isolated, so it has never been more important to inspire and educate young people about the power of inclusive sport that they can do anywhere and use throughout their lives.”

Connect to what is happening around young people – link to international sporting events that they may be seeing or hearing about.

Start simple – ensure the activity or challenge is achievable to ensure participants are successful and gain confidence.

Think STEP – to adapt an activity to suit different abilities, you can change the Space, Task, Equipment or People to make it easier or harder.

Get creative – you may have to adapt activities to make them work for your environment, so use what’s available around school or home and think outside the box.

Inclusion, Inclusion, Inclusion – activities and challenges should be inclusive for all abilities, and sport and physical activity are always more fun with as many people as possible involved.

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Inclusion 2024 will aim to improve provision of inclusive PE for 150,000 young people through training, advice, and guidance to 5,000 schools.

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