Over 100 school girls get active during a This Girl Can Festival.
The event on Thursday (23rd June) saw 120 year six girls, from 12 city primary schools taking part in sport and games. The festival was all about fun and enjoyment, and encouraged all the girls to ‘have a go’ regardless of their shape, size or ability.
Pupils at the festival took part in an opening ceremony, mass warm-up, coaching and games run by secondary girls from three city schools. Some of the sports included dodgeball, urban hockey and handball, plus there was a big closing ceremony at the end of the day. Each girl went home with a participation certificate for their efforts.
It was held at Nottingham Trent University Lee Westwood Sports Centre, and was run in partnership between the City Council’s SOLAR (Sport, Outdoor Learning, Life Skills, Adventure and Risk Management) team, The Nottingham Emmanuel School, The Trinity School and The Nottingham Girls School.
These schools are all running the national This Girl Can campaign in their secondary schools, and hope to inspire more girls to be active and stay active throughout their lives in Nottingham City.
April Wright, Head of PE at The Trinity School, said: “This project is amazing, and it really breaks down barriers to show girls that sport is for everyone. No matter who you are, what you look like or what the activity, it’s just all about promoting activity and getting more girls into sport. It’s great that this campaign continues to have a huge impact on young girls and empowers them to get active and have fun.”
Councillor Sam Webster, Portfolio Holder for Education, Employment and Skills, Said: “Our goal is to motivate girls of all ages to try a sport and get active. There are so many bonuses to taking up a sport, everything from increasing self-esteem to doing better in school and meeting new friends. Obviously, the health factor is there, but it’s also about teaching life skills, goal-setting and being able to work in a team.”
The schools who took part were Ambleside, Southwark, Welbeck Primary, Blue Bell Hill, Portland Spencer, Dunkirk, Glenbrook, Heathfield, Nottingham Academy.
The Nottingham campaign for This Girl Can was launched in March 2015 and aims to give more women an opportunity to gain the confidence to take part in regular exercise.
This Girl Can is a national campaign developed by Sport England and a wide range of partnership organisations, including Sport Nottinghamshire. It’s a celebration of active women up and down the country who are doing their thing no matter how well they do it, how they look or even how red their face gets.