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Government to officially launch Dame Kelly Holmes plan for School Olympics
insidethegames.biz – Monday 28 June 2010
By Duncan Mackay, British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
June 28 – The Government will today set out plans for new national schools competition, backed by Dame Kelly Holmes and modelled on the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which will replace the UK School Games and is aimed to providing a long-term legacy from London 2012.
Schools Secretary Michael Gove and Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt will lay out details of a “Schools Olympics”, which was first proposed by the Conservatives last year.
They claim the proposals will turn around a decline in competitive sport under Labour.
The competition, expected to be financed by £10 million ($15 million) of National Lottery funding, would see schools across the country compete regionally, with the winners contesting a national final at the London 2012 Olympic Stadium, where the title of England schools champion would be up for grabs.
Hunt said: “I want to give a real boost to competitive sport in schools using the power of hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games to encourage young people – whatever age or ability – to take part in this new competition.
“Sport – whether you win or lose – teaches young people great lessons for life. It encourages teamwork, dedication and striving to be the best that you can be.”
The Schools Olympics are expected to be modelled on a competition rolled out across Kent last year, in which 30,000 pupils from 500 schools competed in 38 different events.
The competition is one result of a review of sport carried out by Dame Kelly, the double Olympic gold medallist, on behalf of the Conservatives aimed at reversing the “medals for all” attitude of the Labour Government.
Dame Kelly said: “People want to be touched by the Olympics but they want something left [afterwards].
“They want to feel they were part of the dream, journey and investment.
“I’m very passionate about what happens in Kent and there is a model there I absolutely believe in.
“I believe that if a model like that can work in Kent, with all those people engaging in it, then it should be all over the country.
“If we could copy that model so every county can host their own school games, replicate the amount of young people in those sports, and then have a massive school Olympics, then that is what should be left.
“It is not just for the young people taking part. School teachers will be motivated to get behind this, parents will see their young people enjoying sports and communities and local authorities will come together.
“My challenge is for someone to put on a Schools Olympics.
“That is one of the things that should be left after the Games in 2012.
“I want to see something credible, something we can all get behind, that the nation says it was started because of the Olympic Games and is still here 10 years later.”
The new Government’s plans would include a much greater number of pupils than currently involved in the UK School Games and see teams from different schools competing against each other.
Steve Grainger, chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust, said: “Competition has been happening on an ad hoc school to school basis since the demise of district-level sport.
“It was down to schools to sort something out with another school which is maybe a utopian view of how it might happen.
“We have built up a network of 450 school sport partnerships with every school locked in so we now have a really solid base from which to develop competitive sport up to 2012 and lever off the back of 2012 to enable every kid in the country to have a suitable competitive experience in a whole range of sports.”