Sports Commission wants islanders to 'Vote4Sport'

Sunday 27 September 2020

The Guernsey Sports Commission has launched a new campaign to raise awareness of its work to bring more sports and physical activities into local primary and secondary schools.

It follows a new report which suggests that less than half of primary school children are getting the recommended 60 minutes of exercise a day.

The commission hopes to improve those statistics through supporting teachers, coordinating sporting events across years three to six, providing after-school clubs and ensuring that sports staff and coaches are appropriately qualified.

“The Commission has long recognised the importance of ensuring all children have a fantastic experience of PE, sport and physical activity at school, and can integrate into our community clubs and provisions,” said Graham Chester, the Commission’s Operations Director.

Pictured: The commission’s member sports – rugby, cricket, athletics, football, fencing, squash, tennis, badminton, golf, and hockey – deliver more than 2,000 hours of activity in primary schools alone.

“Since we received the support from the Committee for Education, Sport and Culture we’ve been able to increase our presence in schools. Our officers deliver approximately 6,000 hours of activity within the curriculum and through after school clubs.”

There is now a Sports Commission officer in every primary school, and the commission is supporting secondary schools to provide more choices across PE, school sports and physical activities, as well as providing access to facilities like Beau Sejour.

“All of this has resulted in us being able to offer a far more inclusive programme, and with our increased presence in schools we have been able to support children and young people accessing far more community clubs and activities than ever before,” said Mr Graham.

“We hope that the community, and importantly those standing for election this autumn, will recognise the importance of this work. We would encourage all deputies to support our #IVote4Sport campaign.”

Pictured top: Graham Chester, Sports Commission Operations Director.