Improve life skills

Our current priorities are:

• Advocating the key role of PE, school sport and physical activity for the overall health and wellbeing of children and young people.
• Identifying and supporting schools that require advice and guidance around PE, school sport and physical activity to create more ‘active schools’.

Active Birmingham makes it simple for children and young people to get active. The activity finder is an online search tool that makes it easy to search for a wide range of activities. The tool can be found on our Find local activities page.

The widget is available to schools, and can be installed directly on your school website. By connecting your school, you provide parents and young people with direct access to local activities straight from your website. For more information and instructions on how to access and connect this widget, contact schools@sportbirmingham.org

The School Games is an exciting nationwide initiative designed to continue the magic of the London 2012 Olympics through School Sport Competition.

The School Games programme is a celebration of competitive school sport and culture by creating a year-round calendar of competition for all young people in years 3 to 13 across the city that will inspire them to get involved in competitive school sport.

It also provides opportunities to get involved, not just as participants, but also in other areas such as event organisation, officiating, volunteering and cultural activities.

The School Games initiative is made up of four levels of activity:

• Intra-school competition – sports competition for all students in each school.
• Local cluster inter-school event – coordinated by School Games Organisers across the city.
• City-wide school competitions and festivals – a city finals event for competitions or open developmental festivals for selected schools
• A National multi-sports festival – held every 2 years and delivered by Youth Sport Trust.

Sport Birmingham support the delivery of the School Games across Birmingham by working closely with the network of School Games Organisers and coordinating the city-wide competitions and festivals.

School Games Handbook

One of our Birmingham School Games Challenges which allows school pupils to continue participating in the School Games from home with easy to set-up, personal challenges to develop skills.

Click here for more challenges

The Birmingham School Games Challenges are virtual online challenges for children across the city. This provides an opportunity to engage with the School Games throughout the summer term. These virtual challenges focus on a different sport each week and encourage school children across the city to get involved and stay active whilst at home or at school. The challenges are designed to keep children moving and provide them with the opportunity to continue developing their sporting skills. Each challenge requires minimal equipment and can be done at school, home or in the garden along with friends, parents or siblings so everyone can get involved in the School Games!

To get involved in these challenges, please register at www.sgochallenge.com

The Birmingham School Games, along with many other events and programmes, needed to adapt this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Birmingham School Games Organisers and Sport Birmingham were determined to ensure that children and young people across the city were still able to be involved, develop their skills and try different sport challenges. As a result, the Birmingham School Games Challenges were developed and school pupils across the city were able to take part in 10 weeks of sports challenges that could be completed at home and with minimal equipment.

As a project endorsed by United by Birmingham 2022, the challenges began on Monday 1^st June and ran for 10 weeks, with a different sport focus and 3 challenges to complete each week. Over 4,500 users from 170 schools across the city registered to be involved, while the website (www.sgochallenge.com) received 16,500 views over the course of the challenges.

Click here to read more or download the below impact report.

For more information on getting involved, please contact your local School Games Organiser.

How do you register for the Birmingham School Games Challenges?

Click here to register

You will be asked for an invite code which can be received by contacting your school or you can email schools@sportbirmingham.org with the school name and we will send you the correct code.

Once you have your invite code, just follow the instructions and you’re ready to go!

The aim of The Daily Mile is to improve the physical, social, emotional and mental health and wellbeing of our children – regardless of age, ability or personal circumstances.

The Daily Mile is a social physical activity, with children running or jogging – at their own pace – in the fresh air with friends. Children can occasionally walk to catch their breath, if necessary, but should aim to run or jog for the full 15 minutes.

We want every child to have the opportunity to do The Daily Mile at primary school.

The Daily Mile Works!

• It takes place in 15 minutes, with most children averaging a mile, or more, each day.
• Children run outside in the fresh air – and the weather is a benefit, not a barrier.
• There’s no set up, tidy up, or equipment required.
• No staff training is needed and there is no extra workload for teachers.
• Children run in their uniforms so no kit or changing time is needed.
• It’s social, non-competitive and fun.
• The children return to class ready to learn.
• It helps to improve fitness and achieve a healthy weight.
• It encourages children to be aware of their health.
• It’s fully inclusive; every child, whatever their circumstances, age or ability, succeeds at The Daily Mile.

Read about the 10 core principles of The Daily Mile here.

Access information for schools here.

Sign up here!

Secondary Swimming Webinar

We held a Secondary Swimming webinar on Wednesday 5th May, delivered by Ian Roberts. Please see below a link to the recording of this webinar.

Secondary Swimming Webinar

Source: Newman University

The SHARP Principles (Powell, Woodfield and Nevill, 2016) have been designed to help teachers and coaches to increase the amount of time children engage in physical activity during primary physical education lessons. The SHARP Principles place a focus on active learning time in lessons which provides the children with opportunities to practice their movement skills. Practitioners can apply the SHARP Principles to their existing planning.

The SHARP Principles have increased moderate to vigorous physical activity in PE lessons to 75% (average) of lesson time and are the most effective in comparison with similar strategies.

We have developed resources which are available free of charge to support practitioners with the planning and delivery of active physical education lessons. Practitioners can view the YouTube video here and request the resource cards from our online store.

We hope to offer teacher workshops in the future which will be advertised via social media.

Click here to watch video

Access our SHARP free resource cards from our e-store

This colourful and engaging interactive calendar features exciting activities to help you inspire your class to eat well and move more.

Don’t forget to keep track of your class’ progress by saving your changes after you click to reveal the joke, riddle or fun fact of the week.

Download the KS1 and KS2 Calendars here.

What is Pathway to Podium?

The YDAF is a small grants investment that supports schools to deliver sport or physical activity alongside support, training, and/or mentoring.

The purpose of the fund is to ensure young people are given opportunities to lead healthy and active lifestyles, as well as strengthen the relationships between schools and their communities.

YDA clubs will provide young people with positive, enjoyable experiences which make it easier for them to become active.

Projects

Schools can apply for up to £4,500 to deliver any activity that engages audiences in positive experiences.

Activities must take place weekly and run for a minimum of 24 weeks (breaks can be implemented if delivery is not possible throughout school holidays)

Priority Audiences / Ages

The age ranges for this fund are 11 – 18 years.

As with all our investments, we want to maximise our impact by ensuring the projects we fund prioritise one or more of the following audiences:

• Physically or socially inactive,
• Disengaged or at risk of disengagement,
• LGBT+ Community,
• Young women and girls,
• Diverse ethnic communities,
• Experiencing barriers in accessing opportunities, due to:
• Disability
• A long-term health condition,
• Lower socio-economic impacts,
• Geographical area,
• No fixed abode / no permanent status.

Additional Info

YDA clubs must take place outside of curriculum time. E.g. before or after school, or on weekends.

Applications

Applications must be submitted by a registered educational setting with the approval of the Head Teacher; or a relevant member of SLT.

We welcome partnerships between schools and community organisations (e.g. sports club), however the ‘lead applicant’ must be the educational setting.

Funding and Timescales

We are funding up to £4,500 for each project (between £500-£4,500).

The first round will run from September – December for schools in targeted wards only. There are no set deadlines for this round although we encourage schools to get their application in by the end of October.

The second round will run from January – March for all schools (including those previously targeted). Deadline for applications in round 2 will be Friday 4th February.

How to Apply?

Download the application form and guidance here.

Please submit applications to Lauren.Davies@sportbirmingham.org

We endeavour to respond to all applications within a maximum of 10 working days.

The first round of applications are now open for schools in the following wards:
Acocks Green, Allens Cross, Alum Rock, Aston, Bartley Green, Billesley, Bordesley Green, Bordesley & Highgate, Bromford & Hodge Hill, Castle Vale, Garretts Green, Glebe Farm & Tile Cross, Gravelly Hill, Handsworth Wood, Heartlands, Holyhead, Newtown, Nechells, Perry Barr, Perry Common, Soho & Jewellery Quarter, Sparkbrook & Balsall Heath East, Stockland Green and Tyseley & Hay Mills.