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.

Ellie Beachell, schools’ games organiser for the Skegness School Sports Partnership has recently collaborated with leisure centres and local schools to provide targeted swimming support for identified year 6 pupils. The programme was aimed at children form low socio-economic backgrounds and for those with special educational needs and disabilities. Unfortunately, children from these demographics are more likely to face barriers to activities such as swimming hence the reasoning behind the much-needed intervention.

27 children and young people took part in the 12-week course in a bid to increase their confidence, ability and engagement with swimming. Unfortunately, despite swimming being a mandatory part of the primary school curriculum there are still children that need further support in order to provide them with the life skills that swimming provides. Working collaboratively with local primary schools in the area, Ellie was able to target the children that would benefit the most. She was also supported by Magna Vitae through their swimming pools at Horncastle and Skegness who were able to provide funded additional lessons to the children and their families to continue their development.

Through conversations with local leisure centres, primary schools and using data and insight from the CYP Active Lives survey it was identified that a targeted approach was needed to develop confidence in the water and enhance some children’s understanding of water safety. In order to ensure the programme was designed to reflect the needs of the individuals, the year 6 children selected for the programme were consulted on their motivations, thoughts, feelings and competence.

Ellie commented:

“The swimming programme has hugely supported coastal primary school children with a local need. It has enabled specific children to learn to swim, become more confident in the water and understand the importance of water safety. I am hugely grateful to Magna Vitae for supporting this programme and delivering the fun yet vital programme to these children.

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