Following the PE and School Sport Conference 2023 on the 9th of June, Active Essex have announced an exciting new partnership with the Youth Sport Trust, bringing their Active in Mind programme to Essex. Active in Mind is a programme of interventions, training, and resources to support targeted groups of pupils who are struggling to engage with learning, school life and their physical and mental health.
The programme aims to support young people to transform their mindset through physical activity, peer, and athlete mentoring. Through the programme, Active Essex, and the Youth Sport Trust hope to increase student awareness of mental health issues, improve physical activity and help them improve their coping strategies associated with mental health.
Discussions between Active Essex and the Youth Sport Trust have led to a programme that has been designed to meet the needs of schools and young people in Essex, to ensure every child in Essex has the best start in life, which is active, healthy, and happy. The proposal is compiled of free to access resources, teacher training and targeted interventions with YST Athlete Mentors.
Lee Monk, Active Essex Children and Young People Lead explained that; “There is a wealth of evidence to suggest that physical activity has a positive association with improving children’s happiness and mental wellbeing. We’re proud to be working in collaboration with partners such as the Youth Sport Trust to support children in Essex become happier, healthier, and more physically active. The Active in Mind programme has been proven to support children who are struggling with learning, school life and with their physical and mental health and we believe the programme will contribute to the resilient children and young people system outcome, in the Essex Children and Young People’s Plan.”
This exciting new venture comes off the back of the 2023 PE and School Sport Conference, where Youth Sport Trust CEO, Ali Oliver attended as the keynote speaker.
Several workshops were held for the teachers, which included a mixture of classroom-based talks and more practical sessions to influence and provide ideas for high quality physical education lessons. Primary school teachers were given access to workshops for girl’s football, interventions to support holistic development and national and local updates including Ofsted, School Games, and the Primary PE Sport Premium.
The secondary school PE leads in attendance learnt about equity in PE, how to use accessible tennis for all, as well as listen to national and local updates.
Chris Ellis, Head of School Engagement at the Youth Sport Trust said; “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Active Essex to support young people who are struggling to engage with learning and school life and with their physical and mental health. The partnership will see our Active in Mind programme of interventions, training, and resources to support young people to transform their mindset through physical activity and mentoring.
The Youth Sport Trust aims to equip educators and empower young people with the vision of creating a future where every child enjoys the life-changing benefits of play and sport. This collaboration is a great example of how this vision can be delivered by working together with the county’s Physical Activity and Sport Partnership, thank you to all at Active Essex for making this happen.”
Planning is underway for delivery to start in the 2023/2024 academic year.
