The Essex School Games is a multi-sports event that promotes physical activity amongst children and young people in a school setting. The games, hosted at Basildon Sporting Village are organised by the Active Essex School Games Organisers (SGO’s). They work throughout the year to organise different sport and physical activity opportunities for students through the three strands of the Essex School Games strategy; Develop, For All and Compete pathways, offering them a platform to engage in a variety of sports, learn valuable life skills and help build a sense of community amongst schools. Positive experiences of physical activity look different between groups of children and young people, so it’s important to make sure all are catered for and have the best experience possible.
650 students from 51 schools across the county attended the multisport event where the students took part in Netball, Sport Hall Athletics, Quad kids, inclusive Panathlon led events and an Olympic Year carousel of 4 Olympic Sports. These were all supported by 120 young leaders from 7 Essex secondary schools following the completion of their Active Essex Legacy Leaders training.
The summer celebration was themed around the Paris 2024 Olympics given it being an Olympic year, and in keeping with the French theme, a fruit stall encouraged pupils to practice their French as well as circus performers, whose art originated from France, showcased their skills to the young people who watched on in awe. The Year 4 Olympic Carousel was organised through youth engagement and requests from the School Sports Partnership (SSP) youth boards from around the county, who asked for more activities to try around the Olympics. In this carousel, students were able to take part in Olympic themed activities including Archery, Tennis and Football, and it was also great to see the young people trying out Breakdancing, the newest Olympic discipline Taekwondo, another more niche Olympic event was on offer, with young people getting to try something that they might not normally be able to. Our very own Move With Us mascot, ‘Bezzy’, also made an appearance and engaged with those present.
It wasn’t just physical activity on offer to the students. The Essex County Council music service joined us with a range of instruments and a DJ playing a range of music throughout the day, lending his equipment to the children to try for themselves.
The day was met with a great deal of positive feedback from teachers and parents who attended, with one parent saying; “It was great opportunity to watch my child enjoy physical activity with children from other schools, it would have been great to have more events like this when I was younger as I may have found a sport I continued to do past school”.
A teacher at one of the schools who took part in the day added; “All events were really well organised, and every child listened and understood what the instructors and teachers wanted from them”.
A student that was given the opportunity to take part in the day explained that they; “really liked the fruit stall idea, as it was great to practice our French skills that we had learnt in lessons, in the real world”.
Steve Bish from the Active Essex Children and Young People team, who helped organised the day said; “It was fantastic to see such a broad range of activities and sports taking place as part of our Active Essex summer Olympic celebration event. The aspect which really made it special was how secondary aged Legacy Leaders supported the organisation and delivery of all of the events. We hope this event was inspirational and motivates more young people to enjoy being active and playing sport”.
