Thousands of hours of school sport provided by Sports Commission

Thursday 13 January 2022

The Guernsey Sports Commission ran more than 6,000 hours of sport in schools last year as well as around 40 after-school clubs every week. And the Commission is planning to do even more this year.

In its annual report, published yesterday, the Commission said 2021 was "punctuated with successes" despite the inevitable challenges of the covid-19 pandemic.

One of the key aims of the Commission is to increase engagement in sport from a young age. This includes providing PE in schools, sports opportunities out of school and training to teachers to promote more active lifestyles. 

Jeremy Frith, Performance Director, said the Commission works to ensure that "our young people will be able to make an informed choice in how they will continue a lifelong love and enjoyment of sport or physical activity". The Commission does this partly by working with schools and using facilities at pre-schools and primary and secondary schools.

Pictured: Fencing is one of the sports which children are encouraged to try through the work of the Guernsey Sports Commission.

Funded jointly between the Commission and the States, the School Sports Partnership is managed by 11 staff who provided 6,000 hours of sports-based curriculum during 2021 and 39 extra-curricular activities each week across 14 schools. 

The Commission also arranged for coaches from various sports to visit schools last year to broaden opportunities further. Despite schools being closed for some of the year due to covid-19, the number of sports available to children through the Commission increased over the past year.

Table tennis, golf, climbing, judo, snooker, motor sport, dance, gymnastics, squash and bowls were all introduced during the last academic year and are now firmly established within the Commission's programme. Since then, boxing, skateboarding, petanque, padel tennis and racketball have been introduced at schools which the Commission says "may not have been able to access these opportunities for its pupils previously".

Pictured: Some of the highlights from the Guernsey Sports Commission's annual report for 2021, which is out now.

When schools were forced into lockdown at short notice in January 2021, the Commission reintroduced its PE at Home initiative. Mr Frith said this project "proved its worth" with digital content shared with all States-run schools and via social media.

"We recognise how tough it can be for children and young people to keep fit and active when in self-isolation or when schools are closed," said Mr Frith. "The fun, flexible and easy to follow videos focus on many of the Fundamental Movement Skills which are firmly embedded in the PE Curriculum. They are inclusive and progressive and children can build up their skills in activities such as jumping, throwing, skipping, dodging, and striking."

Pictured: All the PE at Home videos are available on the Guernsey Sports Commission's YouTube account.

With schools currently open under conditions as close to normal as possible, the Commission has returned to offering many of its services within the school day.

Mr Frith said that this work "continues to span a wide range of activities and responsibilities...[t]he intention is to ensure that our children have a high-quality experience of PE, physical activity and sport at school and can then access opportunities outside of school".

To read the Guernsey Sports Commission's annual report, click HERE.