Health and wellbeing
School Games festival brings momentum for Birmingham 2022
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The School Games will inspire young people to be physically active in the run up to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Schools across Walsall are getting ready for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games by taking part in sports activities through the Walsall School Games.
The Games aim to inspire young people to be physically active for life through positive experiences of daily activity and competition.
The School Games Organisers (SGOs), Ormiston Shelfield Community Academy, Streetly Academy and Willenhall E-ACT Academy, jointly arranged six festival days through their programme ‘Road to the Commonwealth’ that started on Friday 28 January 2022.
The sixth and final festival took place on Friday 17 June at Sneyd Community Association, creating opportunities for students to represent their schools whilst taking part in Commonwealth Game based sports, including athletics, dodgeball, mini tennis and lawn bowls.
Perry the Bull, the Birmingham 2022 official mascot, made a special appearance at the festival to bring excitement for the young people and schools involved.
“ Physical activity is important for us all in not only improving fitness levels across Walsall but also raising aspirations, confidence and self-esteem. It has significant health benefits, both physically and mentally with mental health benefits and feeling good about yourself being seen almost immediately.
The Walsall School Games is one example of encouraging physical activity. It is encouraging to see the success of this initiative, bringing children and young people together to try out a range of different sports in a friendly environment, but also build on the excitement in the run up to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this summer.
The Commonwealth Games provides an opportunity for everyone to get involved and try a new sport before, during and after the 11-day event across July and August. Several grassroots initiatives are running across Walsall, where a range of different activities suited to different levels and fitness abilities are on offer and we would love to encourage everyone to carry on doing these activities and others in the longer term as a family. “
“ The School Games is a fun initiative for young people to get involved in a variety of activities, regardless of ability or experience.
All Walsall schools have the opportunity to attend the games and we have had around 30 different schools attend one of the events.
Road to the Commonwealth has been really successful. We have had six primary and two secondary events so far, with up to 144 students attending per event and taking part in inclusive activities such as boxing, rugby, badminton and many more. For this final event in particular, we have opened up to 192 students across Walsall from 16 schools. “
“ Today’s event has been extra special with Perry the Bull making an appearance, which got everyone excited, especially with the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games coming up this summer.
It has been great to see all the young people give the activities on offer a go, while enjoying being active, fit and healthy and making new friends. It also helps them to discover what activities are on offer in their local area.
We hope that this year’s School Games inspired by the Commonwealth Games will create a legacy that will encourage everyone, as well as young people, to take part in or support grassroots or local sports clubs and increase physical activity across Walsall. “
ENDS
Notes to editor:
- The School Games, which is funded by Sport England National Lottery funding and delivered by the Youth Sport Trust, is a government led programme designed to deliver competitive school sport to all young people. More information: https://www.yourschoolgames.com/
