Fit4Sport

Fit4Sport Girls Netball

(21st June 2006)

Fit4Sport was an initiative designed to encourage girls between the ages of 8 – 11 to participate in sports and promote healthy lifestyles.

The event was held at the Birmingham Sports Centre, Balsall Heath, with the schools arriving at 10.00am and leaving at 4.00pm. Four Local Leagues female staff were on supervision duty. The 2 full-time, 1 part-time staff were joined by a Local Leagues volunteer. The event was supposed to have been attended by 7 members of staff, but unfortunately 3 had to drop out due to unforeseen circumstances.
Seven schools from the Bordesley Green, Aston, Sparkbrook and Sparkhill areas took part in the event. These were:

• Prince Albert Primary School
  
• Birchfield Community School
  
• Conway Primary School
  
• Greet Primary School
  
• Wyndcliff Junior & Infants School
  
• Al-Furqan Primary School
  
• Starbank Primary School.

Each school brought 10 girls from school years 4 – 6 and a member of staff.
The day consisted of a group game and aerobic warm up, followed by 4 consecutive activities – tag rugby, basketball, football, and aerobics. The girls spent half an hour at each activity, and then moving onto the next activity with a drink break in between each and a lunch break.

At the end of the day, a healthy lifestyles quiz was held. The quiz was multiple choice and the children had to run to the correct answer (a – d) placed at each corner of the hall. The first child to reach the correct answer scored a point for their team.
There was a presentation ceremony at the end of the event where each participant received a certificate and each school received a trophy to congratulate and thank them for participating in the day. The biggest prize of the day was the Fair Play Award where a trophy was awarded to the school that showed the most sportsmanship throughout the day, and a slightly larger trophy awarded to the girl who showed the most ability and sportsmanship throughout the day.

Fit4Sport was designed to promote healthy lifestyles as well as introducing the girls to different sports. The snacks offered were therefore all healthy and the girls were provided with water, squash, and cereal bars to demonstrate to them healthy snack foods aside from crisps and chocolates.
The day was a resounding success with the girls really enjoying themselves and demonstrating fair play and enthusiasm throughout the day.
This was the first Fit4Sport event that has been held for a few years and therefore it was on a relatively small scale, but in preparation for attracting more schools to participate in the future, possibly up to 10 – 12.
We envisage running girls’ events once a term with a Fit4Sport festival in each summer term. The feedback on the day was really positive and the schools were left looking forward to the next Fit4Sport.