NFSSP News Story

Hampshire schools net highly commended at national awards

Schools from across Hampshire are celebrating being highly commended at a national award ceremony in Telford last night. The New Forest School Sport Partnership has been highly commended for the Youth Sport Trust’s national development awards for its work to use technology to share good practise. The partnership has overcome distance barriers through the development of a website and DVD to promote sport competition fixtures across the partnership, celebrate successes in sporting events and build better relationships with parents.

Nick Ainsworth, Partnership Development Manager for New Forest School Sport Partnership said: “It’s really good for our work to be recognised for using information technology to service the needs of the school sport partnership. It has enabled secondary and primary school teachers to access Continual Professional Development resources for PE online and enabled us to promote competitive sport across all schools in the partnership.”

The members of staff from New Forest School Sport Partnership were able to meet double Olympic Gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes and Olympic Gold medallist Darren Campbell along with Minister for Children, Schools and

Families Kevin Brennan and Youth Sport Trust Chief Executive, Steve Grainger who jointly presented the awards.

Minister for Children, Schools and Families Kevin Brennan said “I’m really impressed by the quality of work taking place in schools to get young people to benefit from the power of sport. It’s great to be able to pay testament to the teachers and co-ordinators who deliver the activity on the ground through awards such as these.”

Dame Kelly Holmes added: “In my role as National School Sport Champion I’m privileged to go into schools and see the fantastic work taking place to engage young people in PE and School Sport. So I’m delighted to reward the work of Testwood School Sport Partnership whose efforts really benefit our young people.”

The awards, which recognise and reward best practice and achievement in school sport and are one of the highlights of the 2007 School and Sport Partnerships’ Conference at the Telford International Centre, organised by the Youth Sport Trust.
Steve Grainger, Chief Executive of the Youth Sport Trust, said: “School Sport Partnerships across the country are doing some ground breaking work to increase participation levels amongst young people which is vital as we work towards our target of offering all young people five hours of sport a week. We’re proud of the way New Forest School Sport Partnership are engaging young people to do more sport.”

School Sport Partnerships are groups of schools, including primary, secondary and special, which work together to develop PE and sport opportunities for all young people.