The Gilberd School in Colchester has a gym with a joint use agreement with Colchester City Council, who help manage the facility afterschool and on weekends. Through Opening Schools Facilities funding (OSF), The Gilberd School have funded a project to enhance participation in health and wellbeing and fitness-based activities for all ages, genders, and ethnic backgrounds.
The school are delivering fitness-based sessions, where students have been educated on how to use the fitness room safely and effectively. This has allowed the students to have a level of independence when it comes to how they train, the intensity and style of training best in a safe and supportive environment. The main priority of the funding bid was to create a warm and inclusive environment whereby girls feel welcomed and motivated to get active with their peers, the equipment purchased through the OSF fund has allowed The Gilberd School to work with the local community. Through the joint use fitness gym, they’re hoping to boost participation and membership levels.
Thanks to the funding, The Gilberd School have been able to record 415 participants at their sessions, with a 50/50 spilt being from the school and the local community.
Cllr Michelle Burrows, Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Culture and Heritage in Colchester said;
“Working with partners such as Active Essex and The Gilberd School to improve our facilities and access to those facilities for both young people and the wider community is really important.We are delighted that the funding application was successful, and incredibly grateful to the Active Essex, The Gilberd School and Leisure World Highwoods teams for their hard work on this. The new equipment looks great, and we look forward to working together moving forward to make even more improvements to Leisure World Highwoods. Our annual target is 60 members – when I started at Highwoods we had 30 members and now due to the investment have since increased this to 60 members, plus continue to grow. The daily usage figures have doubled which is amazing, especially at the weekends.”
Youth voice has been pivotal when understanding what the school needs the most, with the school regularly hosting discussion sessions with students to find out what they’d like to try or what they think would be beneficial for the faculty. By having these discussions, The Gilberd can help tackle their strategic aims of increasing female and ethnically diverse participation levels. OSF funding has helped achieve this as the school has noticed a significant increase of ethnically diverse participants in after school clubs since the funding has been introduced.
For the Year 3 funding, the female students have been at the forefront of the student led discussions, finding out what their barriers are to physical activity engagement.
Ian Duggan, North Essex Assistant Relationship Manager said;
“The OSF funding has enabled the Gilberd School to upgrade and improve equipment in their gym. This has made it more attractive not only to students but also to the local community through the joint use agreement they have with Colchester City Council for community use. With the installation of the new equipment after school clubs have seen increased attendance and Colchester City Council have seen membership and usage almost double, particularly at weekends. This is a great example of how OSF funding has benefitted the school and surrounding community.”
