Links talk School Games at the Sheffield Hallam University Conference

Back in January Craig and Kim from Links were asked to deliver a workshop at the conference on the topic of School Games in primary schools.  With drastic changes in funding and the goals in delivering competitive sport in schools this is a relevant topic for many of the students studying sport currently.  With primary schools being a strong focus of sport delivery it is important to understand how to best deliver these guidelines to help best deliver sport to this age group.

What are the School Games?

The School Games is a new government initiative that aims to help deliver more competitive sport in schools.  The games have 4 levels of activity that vary from competition in school to national level competition.  These 4 levels of competition help to engage all levels of athlete in some form of competition.  This aims to use the inspiration of the London 2012 games to get children motivated to compete in sport.

The 4 levels of the School Games are:

Level 1 – sporting competition for all students in school through intra-school competition
Level 2 – individuals and teams are selected to represent their schools in local inter-school competitions
Level 3 – the county/area will stage multi-sport Sainsbury’s School Games festivals as a culmination of year-round school sport competition
Level 4 – the Sainsbury’s School Games finals: a national multi-sport event where the most talented young people in the UK will be selected to compete in our sporting venues (including the Olympic Park in 2012).

The Workshop

With full attendance it was an incredibly positive start to the workshop and great to see so many students interested in how the School Games are delivered in primary schools.  As all the students were enthusiastic to learn all the activities went without a problem and really engaged the students.  Hopefully they have taken from the workshop that competitive sport can be delivered to any level of participant and that this approach will help to engage more children in sport overall.  As we have many events in the School Games calendar it is important for us to show people how this can be an effective tool for sport delivery but also to gain peoples interest in the School Games delivery method.

If you are interested in having any coaching to prepare for the School Games competitions then either contact us at the contact page or Email Kim Horton