Girls Active
Girls Active is an initiative designed to empower teenage girls to enjoy more sporting activity on their own terms. Research consistently indicates that teenage girls are less active than boys of the same age and are more likely to become disengaged and drop out of sport in their early teens.
Dame Kelly Holmes in her role as The National School Sport Champion, backed by the government and supported by the Youth Sport Trust & Norwich Union, embarked on the Girls Active initiative to address the issues.
In November 2006, a series of workshops were held across the country, engaging young girls and teachers in discussions about the barriers to girls getting into sport and how to increase participation levels.
Following previous research which revealed that 40% of girls drop out of all sporting activity by the age of 18, the Girls Active workshops identified that over 85% of participating girls rated the environment for their PE lessons, the range of activities on offer and their PE kit as average or poor. When asked what they believed would get more girls active, the girls almost exclusively suggested the need for alternative forms of physical activity, such as Street dance, Boxercise, Tea Kwondo and Aerobics
As a result of the workshops, Dame Kelly Holmes tasked the girls and their teachers to develop ‘Action Plans’, demonstrating how they will look to tackle the issue of girls’ disengagement with sport in their school. Out of the 75 school sport partnerships that attended the workshops, North East Hampshire School Sports Partnership were selected as the winning School Sports Partnership.
Daily Telegraph School Sports Matters Award Winners
The North East Hampshire School Sport Partnership in Farnborough, Hampshire has been designated by the Youth Sport Trust as one of four Norwich Union Girls Active Regional Centres. Regional Centre status has been assigned following our involvement in the programme since 2006. when we attended a national road show and subsequently won the Daily Telegraph School Sports Matters Award for Innovative ideas and practices in PE and School Sport, which focussed on getting girls active and encouraging them to stay active for life. We then received a visit from Dame Kelly Holmes due to the winning action plan that we submitted.
The Norwich Union Girls Active Programme is designed to empower teenage girls to enjoy more sporting activity on their own terms, making positive choices and being given a voice. It is also about enabling young people to make a positive contribution to their schools. Girls are challenged to come up with ideas on what they would change in their own schools in order to make sporting activity something they would want to participate in.
The Norwich Union Girls Active Regional Centre based at Cove School will focus on High Quality PE and Curriculum Innovations, and will drive the implementation and innovation of an agreed regional delivery plan to increase girls’ participation across the region.
The North East Hampshire School Sport Partnership has been tasked with:
- Reaching 3000+ girls aged 13-16 through Girl ls Active work within the region
- Acting as a hub site for girls issues in sport across the region
- Developing of innovations through Girls Active to share and disseminate across other School Sports Partnerships
- Ensuring all schools within SSP have Girls Active as a leading piece of work and leading the way around girls participation issues
As a hub site for girls’ issues in sport across the region we would like to work with other Schoos and School Sports Partnerships in the area and disseminate good practices and offer examples of work that has been of great success.
