Sport England commissions Fit For Sport to repeat successful Engage To Compete programme

Fit For Sport - the UK’s experts at engaging and educating children through activity – has been awarded nearly £200,000 of National Lottery funding from Sport England to deliver its Engage To Compete programme in two new areas: Sandwell in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets in London. The funding follows the success of the Engage To Compete pilot project last year in Manchester and Somerset schools.

Engage To Compete aims to increase children’s participation in physical activity and competition while simultaneously engaging adults and leisure/community providers in the area. The project seeks to involve all children in some form of physical activity and School Games Level 1 intra competition within their school.  Around half of the participating children will take part in the School Games Level 2 inter competition with neighbouring schools.  Ultimately, Engage To Compete seeks to increase the amount of children taking part in physical activity and competition through a whole school approach.

Fit For Sport provides training, support and mentoring for teachers and support staff focusing on delivering a range of activities at playtime, lunchtime and after school.  Crucially, Fit For Sport also seeks to upskill non-teaching staff - including classroom assistants, playground supervisors and lunchtime leaders - to maximise their available time and enhance their work. 

“Engage To Compete aims to give primary school children access to positive physical activity and school sport sessions,” says Dean Horridge, CEO and founder of Fit For Sport.  “Initially we focus on key skills such as running, jumping, ball skills, co-ordination and agility and our main aim is to excite children into being active and show them it’s enjoyable.

“Our focus for Years 1 and 2 is on engagement and fun, for Years 3 and 4 we bring in more physical activity and competitive games, and for Years 5 and 6 we introduce recognised sports and competition,” explains Dean.  “By making the activity age-appropriate, Engage To Compete develops confidence, skills and enjoyment of activity that encourages all children to be active.“

Key partners
Fit For Sport will work closely with Sandwell Leisure Trust, West Bromwich Leisure Centre and Birmingham City Council to deliver the Sandwell project and GLL, Places for People and Tower Hamlets London Borough Council to implement the Tower Hamlets project.  Additional support will come from community sport and education specialists Inspired Exchange. The programme will be independently monitored and audited by ukactive.

“We are delighted to be supporting Fit For Sport to roll out Engage To Compete to schools in Sandwell and Tower Hamlets after the successful pilot last year,” said Mike Diaper, Director of Community Sport at Sport England. “We know from an early age, lifelong patterns of positive behaviour and involvement can be established through being physically active. By being involved with Engage to Compete, young people will have the chance to develop their skills so they can join in the fun and compete with their classmates as part of Sainsbury’s School Games.”

Building on success
Fit For Sport delivered a very successful Engage To Compete pilot project from January to July 2013 with schools in Manchester and Somerset which saw 10,761 primary school children from 47 schools taking part in the Sainsbury’s School Games activities.  Eighty one percent of all children engaged in the school activity took part in Level 1 competition and 54% of them took part in Level 2 competition.

Three tasks - throw & catch, agility run and a jumping co-ordination challenge – designed to assist co-ordination, agility and stamina, are performed at three levels of difficulty to show the progress in the children.  As well as improving the children’s co-ordination, balance and agility, Engage To Compete helps improve classroom performance and reduces playtime and lunchtime behavioural incidents.