Sport Unlimited - Partnership Projects - South Norfolk SSP

Sport Unlimited

Sport Unlimited

"It’s given me confidence not only in sport but socially and in school.”

Sport Unlimited is an innovative new youth sports programme which cascades funding to local communities via the county sports partnerships network.

Background

The Sport Unlimited programme is an integral part of the Government’s PE and Sport Strategy for Young People. This is often referred to as the Five Hour Offer because the overall aim is to provide young people with five hours of sport and physical activity per week.

The South Norfolk School Sport Partnership Sport Unlimited programme provides a range of attractive and sustainable opportunities in sporting activities for young people from the ‘semi sporty population segment’ to take part in out of school hours in term time. Those young people considered to be semi sporty take part in two hours of sport within school and one hour out of school.

The Sport Unlimited programme is particularly targeted at the age groups that evidence shows are more likely to drop out of sport and physical activity – those aged 10-12 (the transition from KS2 to KS3) and those aged 14-19. Addressing the barriers to participation is particularly important and these include:

• Embarrassment and self consciousness
• Other interests and social rather than sporting events
• Peer pressure
• Time pressures: paid and academic work taking priority.

The first step in the programme is to establish what sports young people actually want to do.

Popular alternative sports include trampolining, climbing, free running (also known as parkour), BMX, street dance, skiing and horse riding. These sit alongside more traditional sports such as football, badminton and tennis, often repackaged or adapted to be more relevant to a younger audience.

Local providers organise 8-week, high-quality Sport Unlimited taster sessions designed to inspire youngsters to sign up for longer-term participation in local clubs and in the community.

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