More than 150 girls from four schools in Derby and Nottingham took part in a range of activities from archery to parkour, boxing and climbing after designing the event themselves.
The girls, from Djanogly City Academy, City of Derby Academy, The Bemrose School, and Derby Moor Academy, took part in the Girls Active School Games event, which was held at Nottingham Trent University’s Clifton Campus.
The event was part of work to inspire and empower girls from the participating schools to help shape a PE, sport and physical activity offer that is suitable for all and positively influence their peers about physical activity choices.
Each school has established a Girls Leadership and Marketing Squad (GLAM) of around ten girls. These girls had previously attended an inspiration day at Eastwood Hall and then, as well as helping to shape their in-school offer, had worked with a group of local ambassadors to help decide the look and feel of the School Games event.
Their input informed decisions on the venue, timing, activities and the code of conduct. The day itself featured four activity zones which focused on developing key themes which had come out of the consultation as being important to the girls, including body confidence, self-belief, teamwork and resilience, and positivity.
Each school was invited to bring their GLAMS, along with girls who had engaged in the work of the GLAMs and who they felt would benefit from the experience in terms of positively influencing behaviours and attitudes towards physical activity.
Within the themed zones were a variety of activities which the girls had chosen themselves, many of which they had never taken part in before. These included parkour, boxing, climbing, archery and netball, as well as a surf simulator, Leap of Faith and Ultimate Wipeout.
Feedback from the day has been positive, with comments including: “The day was brilliantly organised and the girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves. There were girls who haven’t taken part in PE this year who threw themselves into it and enjoyed it.”
Active Derbyshire and Active Notts are working with the Youth Sport Trust to deliver the Girls Active programme in Derby and Nottingham, with a focus on enabling children to have positive experiences of being active throughout their childhood, and working with people and communities who experience the greatest inequality.
