Posted: April 29, 2020
Sport England is a project that is focused on tackling inactivity within students aged between 16-19 years old and changing their behaviour towards physical activity. Over the past 2 and a half year North Lindsey College alone has engaged with 2213 students with attendance to specialist sessions hitting just over 11,000!
Another year of funding means that students will have the opportunity to continue the sessions we have running which has shown positive impacts on not just their physical and mental well-being but also the way they communicate with each other, have fun, build on team work and build strong relationships with their tutors and other staff.
Teams across campuses in Scunthorpe and Doncaster have created fun approaches to physical activity that students wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to do outside of College, rather than sport focused. The huge success is creating a positive behaviour with physical activity to encourage them to be physically active beyond College life and also supporting positive mental health.
Natasha O’Grady (Childcare student) said, “Boxing has really helped to improve my confidence and keep my mental health at bay – physical activity helps me to wake up in a morning and leaves me feeling great for the rest of the day, if not the whole week. I look forward to classes as i’ve made new friends, learnt new skills have found a new way to release built up stress and tension from MH problems.”
The project has a focus on ensuring external coaches and instructors come into the colleges and deliver specialised sessions to further build on that positive mindset of continuing with physical activity. North Lindsey College has been working with professional boxer, Luke Fisher who has made a positive impact on students with waiting lists for the new block of session every six weeks. The sessions have also created breaks between studying for exams and completing essays; helping to ease the stress that can build up in classrooms.
September will see the launch of a new activity called Arrow Tag, a combination of archery, dodgeball and capture the flag. The students can now further develop their archery skills from the last two years and put it into a team game activity hiding behind inflatable objects and working together.
Stacey Blackwell (Sport England Project Lead at North Lindsey College) said, “We have a fantastic team which radiates off to the students. It is great to see the impact this has made on our students, bringing out their self-confidence, not being scared to try new things and challenging themselves.
“We have a great relationship with all staff across college which contributes towards the success, without their support these sessions just wouldn’t be as accessible. It’s great to have successfully achieved another year of funding and to take the project further, providing students with new activities to get involved and to even help volunteer. “