The school games, which is free for primary and secondary schools to access, allows children and young people to take part in targeted opportunities from a plethora of sports and activities. It creates experiences based on their motivations, competence and confidence ensuring the environment is inclusive, accessible and meaningful.

Through the school games Active Lincolnshire position tackling inequalities at the forefront constantly seeking opportunities to support our school games organisers. To truly develop a county school games, offer that is accessible, inclusive and provides positive experiences for all children and young people we support in various ways. We provide our school games organisers with insight, collaboration, meaningful connections, advocacy and support/advise where necessary.

Matthew Strange, school games organiser for the Lincolnshire Central School Sports Partnership has provided an innovative way of promoting leadership opportunities and engaging children and young people. Local secondary schools have identified that children’s desire and motivations to lead sport and physical activity have decreased over the past few years. Through targeting year 5 and 6 children Matthew hoped to engage a younger audience with the aim of developing skills and motivations to change their perceptions as they transition to secondary school.

Matthew worked with 104 Year 5/6 children from 14 local primary schools, using youth voice to design, develop and deliver a plethora of activities to 342 Year 3/4 children. They spent time learning about the activities they would deliver and developed their leadership skills in order to maximise the impact for the younger children they would deliver to. To further support the Year 5/6 pupils, 66 local secondary school young leaders in years 9/10 assisted the delivery.

The year 5/6 pupils were then rewarded for their efforts through a VIP event that was delivered by the Y9/10 young leaders in collaboration with local community clubs (Sleaford Football, Rugby & Gymnastic clubs, Kuk Sool Wun & Lincs Cricket).

This hugely successful event and collaborative approach with a whole host of partners has had a huge impact for all participants. It has paved the way for students to access new sports, develop new skills, increase their confidence and knowledge and created opportunities for the young leaders to support their local community clubs.

In addition to this, Matthew also provided a targeted programme for 30 children to access through the school holidays. Working with local primary schools to identify children who would benefit from additional opportunities to be active to enhance their mental and physical well-being, the programme has given them the chance to access free provision outside of term time.

A variety of sporting sessions were carefully designed to be inclusive and accessible for all and to enhance their knowledge around their health and well-being. Children were also given a passport of activities they could complete at home such as going for a walk, riding a bike with a family member or eating a healthy meal with their families, through which they could earn further certificates or rewards. School staff have commented that they have already seen an increase in participants' physical activity levels during school hours as well as their attitudes towards physical education.

Find out more about the School Games and how your school can get involved here.