A giant outdoor gym was unveiled by a special celebrity guest in Devonport to inspire schools and the local community to get more involved in sport. British Olympic sprinter Craig Pickering attended the official launch of the adiZone. 

Designed and developed by adidas, the adiZone is a 625 square metre venue inspired by Olympic and Paralympic sports. It will help widen the opportunities for recreational leisure activities in the city and is free to use 365 days of the year. It includes basketball, football and tennis areas, a climbing wall, an outdoor gym and an open area to encourage dance, aerobics, gymnastics and martial arts.

On Friday 27 August 2010 there was a launch party at the park at Mutton Cove with a basketball and street dance demonstration by Urban X to show how the adiZone can be used.

Plymouth City Council's sports development unit has been working with the Devonport Regeneration Community Partnership (DRCP) and the Children and Young People's Trust to secure funding to bring the facility to the city. adiZones were initially installed by adidas in four of the London 2012 host boroughs and are now being introduced to towns and cities across the UK as part of the preparations for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Youth Sport Trust will be working with the Cities SDU and SSP's to offer a schools activation package.

If we are going to meet the needs of all the Children and Young People in Plymouth to be physically active and learn outside the classroom we must start to use this and similar facilities as teaching and learning areas.

Water Safety

A project funded by RoSPA, and reported in RoSPA's 'Safety Education' Summer 2010 edition, has come up with an interesting conclusion relating to traditional life-saving advice. Instead of immediately attempting to swim or wave for help, researchers at the University of Portsmouth are advocating 'float first'.

Apparently tests have showed that staying as still as possible in the first few minutes after tumbling into water (a major cause of drowning fatality in the UK) increases survival time by enabling air trapped in clothing to keep the head above water and slowing the rate at which the body cools.

This clearly places massive demand and expectation on a less than water confident child in a hostile life -threatening environment so appropriate training and rehearsal seems to be critical to its success.

On a slighter lighter note, a recent Child Safety Education Coalition (CSEC) project on water safety which took part at the National Water Sports Centre, Nottingham included the following quote from a Y6 pupil:

'I learnt how to save people from drowning in the water, by throwing something that floats like a football, or string and stick which I have to hold onto. I enjoyed it'

One hopes that the 'holding onto' does NOT refer to the football!

Sun Protection

Let's hope we continue to experience a bumper summer with lots of opportunity for activity outdoors.

So if the sun intends to be kind to us let's ensure that our pupils adopt sensible precautions and wear suitable clothing, including hats, and utilise sun block wherever necessary.

QCF Is Coming - Do You Know What It Is?
You will have heard us talking about big changes coming as we move from the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), to the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF). But do you really feel comfortable with what this is, and how it will affect you running a Sports Leaders UK course?
Our website now features an Introduction to the Qualifications and Credit Framework, and copies of the Sports Leaders UK Technical Updates to help you. 

So, what do you need to do?

The fundamentals of what we do still stand, however we have also been using this opportunity to streamline our systems to make them more customer friendly. Our new Approved Assessment Centre Application Form and Course Application Form are now available.

New Age Range - Level 1 Award in Sports Leadership and Level 1 Award in Dance Leadership 

We've lowered the starting age for our Level 1 awards. Candidates can now start these qualifications from age 13. Read more at Level 1 Award in Sports Leadership, and Level 1 Award in Dance Leadership.

Level 2 Award in Sports Leadership 

We have a brand new qualification being launched in September 2010, the Level 2 Award in Sports Leadership. This qualification is designed for candiates aged 14+ and is an ideal progression for candidates who have achieved the Level 1 Award in Sports Leadership.

Level 3 Award in Day Walk Leadership and Level 3 Certificate in Basic Expedition 

We currently have two qualifications that meet the needs of 'the outdoors'. The Level 2 Award in Day Walk Leadership, and the Level 2 Award in Basic Expedition Leadership. The transition onto the QCF has given us the opportunity to review these qualifications, which has resulted in them being re-levelled. As of September 2010, these qualifications will now be the Level 3 Award in Day Walk Leadership and the Level 3 Certificate in Basic Expedition Leadership.

Price List

The price list for 2010/11, including any changes brought about by the framework change in September, was issued with the 'QCF Special' Technical Update. It can also be found on our website - see Fees & Charges. 

National Qualification Framework (NQF) Courses (pre-September 2010) 

The last date a course can start under the current National Qualification Framework is 31st August 2010. All courses that start on or after 1st September 2010 will be registered to the QCF. All certification for NQF courses must be claimed by 31st August 2013. 

QCF Resources
Tutor Resource Pack Order Form
We have been busy re-writing our Tutor Resource Packs (TRP) to ensure they reflect the changes brought about by the QCF, and to offer new ideas to assist with running a Sports Leaders UK course. As you will have already heard, anyone who has bought a TRP since 1st February 2010 will automatically receive the new electronic TRP free of charge, once they are available. If you would like to order the new QCF TRP, please use our new Tutor Resource Pack Order Form.

Record of Achievement
As you will have read in the Technical Update, as of September 2010, we will no longer provide Log Books, but will instead require all candidates to compile a Record of Achievement. Using feedback we've received from customers, we have re-designed these to be in an A4 format, which can be placed in a ring binder, making it easier to add candidate evidence. We are in the final stages of producing the new Record of Achievements, and they will be with you for all courses starting in September 2010.

Government have announced the process for the Comprehensive Spending Review, the exercise which sets departments plans and priorities for 2011/12 to 2014/15, and the results of this are anticipated in the early autumn. It is only then that there will be any informed decisions about the future. You will be aware that significant additional cuts are expected in public expenditure and that there is also a strong commitment to devolve significant amounts of central funding directly to schools. During this period there are likely to be lots more rumours about what will and won't happen and we'd urge you not to take too much notice of these and to wait for the outcomes of the review.

We continue to believe that School Sport Partnerships provide a highly effective and efficient delivery mechanism. Indeed we believe that they are the only way to ensure that every school creates opportunities and that consistency of delivery is available for young people of all ages and abilities. It is on this basis that we will keep advocating at all levels and with a wide range of individuals and organisations - we would urge you to continue doing likewise.

In what we know is a difficult time please stay positive and let's keep our focus where it needs to be - delivering the very best sport opportunities for young people.

Thanks again for all you continue to do for young people through sport"

With kind regards,

Baroness Sue Campbell (Chair) and Steve Grainger (Chief Executive)

The previous Government accepted recommendations put forward by Sir Jim Rose to implement a new primary curriculum from September 2011. Ministers announced today that the Government does not intend to proceed with the new primary curriculum.

Ministers are committed to giving schools more freedom from unnecessary prescription and bureaucracy. They have always made clear their intentions to make changes to the National Curriculum that will ensure a relentless focus on the basics and give teachers more flexibility than the proposed new primary curriculum offered.

The Government intends to return the National Curriculum to its intended purpose - a minimum national entitlement organised around subject disciplines - and will shortly announce its next steps.

In the meantime, the existing primary curriculum will continue to be in force in 2011/12 and schools should plan on that basis.

Ministers have also decided not to proceed with the revised level descriptions which were due to come into force for Key Stage 3 from this September. Secondary schools should therefore continue to use existing level descriptions.

Information on the Department's website will be updated as announcements are made and more detail is available. Please visit www.education.gov.uk/curriculum for the latest news and answers to your questions.

If schools choose to use coaches in this way they should ensure that they are not missing the opportunities that class teachers have to develop children within and outside the classroom linking both areas. They will also be expected by OFSTED to have a system of regular monitoring and evaluation of the coaches work which will be inspected against the TDA HLTA standards. If schools feel their teaching staff are not able to teach satisfactory PE lessons the LDA can provide training at no cost to the school to support and develop colleagues. Children may benefit far more from other areas of the curriculum being contracted out whilst teachers teach PE.

Coaches are a very valuable part of the school workforce, the contributions which they make to OSHL and when they work alongside teachers during PE lessons add value to the experiences of children. Their use as cover for PPA time is something that the SSP feel is not educationally sound, our coaching team have been told never to work in this way!

If the answer to any of the above questions is no you may be missing significant opportunities to raise standards and children and young peoples achievements. PE and sport can easily contribute to 19 of the 25 ECM C+YP outcomes, which schools are funded to meet and inspected against. Many schools are using PE and sport to raise standards in English, maths and science as well as improve behaviour, attendance and aspirations.

Some primary colleagues have commented that Griggs and Wards 'Cogs in the machine' article reflects their experiences whcih shows how much work still needs to be done to be able to say yes to all the questions above! School leaders who answer no to any of these questions should talk with their Primary Link Teachers, School Sport Co-ordinators, Partnership Development Manager and School Improvement Partner to start to drive their school's achievements upwards and improve opportunites for children.

The Road Safety and Sustainable Transport Teams within the city council have also secured funding to offer Bikeability training to primary schools which will mean that Head Teachers will be able to choose which provider is best for their school in 2010/11. We have requested a review of these departments either from within the city or by OFSTED to ensure that they are able to operate at the appropriate level to provide a high quality experience for all children. If they recieve a clean bill of health we will look at ways of working together to increase opportunities. 

Over the last 2 years we have trained more than 1300 children and young people to Bikeability Level 2 and been cited as an example of good practice by Cycling England.  The contract for the PCC training has been given to a Midlands based firm, Outcomes UK, after a deduction of £2,500 in the name of best value! Outcomes UK are looking to recruit local staff, most of whom have been trained by 1 of the SSP's to run courses for them. How can the introduction of 2 extra layers of administration do anything but dilute public funding and reduce quality? It is hoped that the review/inspection will clarify this and other issues to the satisfaction of elected members and key decision makers or recommend appropriate actions to ensure we all operate in the best interests of the cities children.   

SSP's have invested in people nationally and have been recognised as providing excellent value for money. The work of the Plymstock Partnership has been recognised at a national level on three occassions in the last 5 years.  The contributions that can be made to the ECM C+YP outcomes by the partnership are significant but are not always being taken up by all the schools we work with!

The funding we receive comes with terms and conditions [PLT's are aware of these and MUST ensure that they share this information with their business managers and heads in order for the auditor to approve claims] and is provided to support parts of the school element of the 5 hour offer. This consists of 2 hours of high quality PE within the curriculum and at least one hour a week of sport for all young people beyond the curriculum which is accessible, attractive, affordable and appropriate. We need to use all the resources available to us to make C+YP and their parents and carers aware of all the opportunities on offer as take up is an issue in some schools. 

There is a need to realign the culture within some of our schools, where 80% of OSHL time is spent with 20% of C+YP, with the ECM agenda [which schools are funded to provide and inspected against] if we are going to reach the SSP floor target of 80% of five to 16 year olds taking part in 3 hours of PE and sport organised by schools each week. This means taking up opportunities for things such as Active Lifestyles and Change for Life clubs which target inactive children and young people.

In the Summer we are going to use the story of another Australian hero, skater Stephen Bradbury, to encourage people to maximize the opportunities available to them. We have been informed by both Baroness Sue Campbell [Chair Youth Sport Trust] and Steve Grainger ,YST CEO, that the major political parties all have plans to sustain the SSPP infrastucture exploding the myth that SSP's will disappear after 1st September 2011. The outcome of the election on 6th May will determine the work that partnerships will be expected to carry out but all the major political parties are unanimous in recognizing the impact of the work we have done and the potential of SSPs to make a difference to C+YP.

The reality is that the investment in people within our partnership and across the whole programme has created a workforce which is constantly developing and improving, The SSP floor target of 80% of C+YP accessing the 2+1 element of the 5 hour offer by 1st September 2011 will require this workforce to refocus and perform in different ways. We need to change fast and be supported at both local and national levels to meet this challenge successfully.

The timescales involved are very short but were the only viable option and will challenge all of us to work in a different way between now and Easter.This project offers an outstanding opportunity for up to 720 Young People in the School Sport Partnership Secondary age schools to learn to swim for free!

We have a professional obligation to help our students stay safe, be healthy and enjoy and achieve. If a young person can not read or write it is unfortunate, if they can not swim it is potentially fatal, every year in the UK children die by drowning! With the amount of water which surrounds our city we must do everything possible to reduce the chances of this happening.

During curriculum time for its first 2 weeks the pool will be used by students from the host school. All partnership schools will have the chance to be scheduled into the last 4 weeks of the programme from Monday 8th March. To book some pooltime or for further details contact Rob Wright [01752 495 046/07812771859 or rpwright@plymstockschool.org.uk]

The Fit for the Future guide has been developed by the Partnerships for Schools (PfS) PE & Sport Design Steering Group.

The role of this steering group is:
To provide advice on updates to PfS Technical Guidance notes and templates in relation to PE & Sport.
To develop resources and guidance to support schools and local authority PE & Sport Stakeholder Groups in the design process.
To promote good practice and innovation in the design of PE & Sport learning environments and community provision.
The group is made up of representatives from Education, PE & Sport and the Private Sector with experience in commissioning, designing and constructing PE and Sport facilities for education and community use.

The Fit for the Future guide aims to challenge current thinking, provoke discussion and provide advice. It will be particularly relevant to BSF PE & Sport Stakeholder Groups in their role supporting schools to translate their vision for PE & Sport into a design brief.

The guide can be downloaded from this website or by visiting www.partnershipforschools.org.uk

The BSF PE and Sport Stakeholder Group aims to represent the priorities and needs of PE to the BSF Project Management Team. The initial meeting of the Plymouth group on Tuesday 26th January was attended by some of the people seen as core to this work BUT was informed that the Lead officer for sport/leisure in the authority and the LA Stategic Lead for PE and Sport [curriculum] are unlikely to be involved in the group. Have we got our priorities right? Even if we are only looking at 10 sites with a budget of £40 million each BSF will have a greater impact on Plymouth than the Life Centre or the football World Cup so surely it should be a higher priority on these colleagues work programmes!

Other issues that need to be addressed to maximise the success of this opportunity are the representation on the group from the Primary Health Care Trust [they need to send a budget holder], the fact that the workstream lead for PE and Sport does not have a grounding in PE or schools and the assumption that those people who did attend on Tuesday can clear their diary on very short notice to attend another meeting in 3 weeks time. 

If Secondary School Leaders are able to use their influence to ensure we make the most of this investment, it is worth noting that Building Bulletin 98 remains as guidance and is not statutory, we could create facilities such as, Lifestyle studios, Aesthetic Movement Spaces, Physique Centres, and a variety of games playing areas combined with quality changing areas to give young people an enriched PE experience and allow teachers real opportunities to tailor the curriculum to suit all needs. 

http://public.schoolsonthemove.co.uk

Any SSP schools who would like to use these resources should contact their SSCo. 

http://blogs.msdn.com/ukschools/archive/2008/09/11/shift-happens-uk-download.aspx

We need to be prepared to look at and do things differently if we are going to make the 5 Hour Offer a reality for the C+YP we are supporting. Over the last week PLT's from JKCC and Plympton Academic Councils as well as SSP staff have looked at an A3 sheet which could be viewed as the letter B or number 13, like a lot of the opportunities offered by the partnership. Those who want to Be positive are taking up opportunities and making things happen for the C+YP they work with, those who see 13 [unlucky for some C+YP] are often 'too busy to read' about these opportunities, wearing ' too many hats' and need support to change their thinking and working practices.

When people are at capacity it is not possible to do more but it is possible to do things in a different way. We need to ensure that 80% of our effort does not go into 20% of our students and start finding ways to engage colleagues who have not been involved in leading physical activity to promote children's health and well being.

1944 curriculum hours will be provided by Secondary Schools changing their curriculums at Key Stage 4. We are expecting to get support from the Youth Sport Trust, Healthy Schools, OFSTED and Children's Services to ensure this happens by September 2010.

The other 3056 hours will need to come by offering more OSHL opportunities which are targetted at Children and Young People who are not currently accessing the school element of the 5 hour offer. SSP resources will be prioritized to support this work.

We need set up 4 new clubs per week in all mainstream partnership schools with at least 22 pupil places at each club. ActiveLifestyles clubs are one way that this can be done. In primary schools an Active Play Club for Key Stage 1 Children and TOP Activity Clubs for Year 3/4's and 5/6's could provide 3 new clubs each week. We are able to access support from the YST and the LDA to resource and train people to lead these clubs. The 4th club could change each term to make use of the opportunities provided by Plymstock Outdoors.Secondary schools could offer a 3 TOP Activity Clubs for the least active students in Years 7,8 and 9 and engage students in Key Stage 4 in some of the opportunities to learn outside the classroom.

The provision of new activities may need us to access new spaces as most of the indoor facilities in SSP schools are at capacity, it will also require us to engage people as leaders who are  new to leading elements of the 5 hour offer. .      

Girls Minor Schools; 1st Holberton [37], 2nd Cornwood [73], 3rd Pomphlett [75]

Boys Minor Schools; 1st Wemburt [61], 2nd Kings [88], 3rd Widewell [90]

Girls Inter Schools; 1st St Andrews, Buckland [55], 2nd Mary Deans [60], 3rd Highview [85]

Boys Inter Schools; 1st Mary Deans [34], 2nd St Pauls [68], 3rd Holy Cross [98]

Girls Major Schools; 1st Hyde Park Juniors [41], 2nd Goosewell [42], 3rd Lipson Vale [74]

Boys Major Schools; 1st Hyde Park Juniors [53], 2nd Widey Court [60], 3rd Goosewell [62]

The course was marshalled by sports leaders from Coombe Dean and the hare for all 6 races came from DHSB, many thanks to all these students for helping to make the event a success. We have had some very useful developmental feedback which will help improve the event for next year, if you have any ideas as to how we can improve things next year please get in touch.  

If other groups are able to access further funding for Bikeability once they have the capacity to run training for more than 2357 children in SSP schools we will reduce our programme to a level that provides for every child, eventually not bidding against other areas to do this work.Please note that our grant is only able to be accessed by SSP's therefore anyone within the city who would prefer to see this funding being used elsewhere does not have an interest in the cities children!

We are really pleased to be one of a small number of SSP's to be selected to be part of this programme. Two members of the team are attending a training day on October 8th 2009 after which we have to identify 10 sites in the SSP to run TOP Activity Clubs.Schools who sign up to hold a club will receive CPD for staff who run the activities, a deliverers handbook, a series of activity cards, a DVD and music CD plus a selection of alternative activity equipment. To find out more or register your schools interest in this scheme contact Rob Wright on 01752 495 046 or  by e-mail to rpwright@plymstockschool.org.uk .