NEWS RELEASE
PR 1709
For Immediate
Release
22 April 2004
Young people
attend sports leadership conference
AROUND 40
secondary school pupils from across Bath & North East Somerset will
be at the University of Bath on Friday, April 23 to attend a
conference on sports leadership led by a group of students from the
university.
The day has been organised by Bath &
North East Somerset Council’s Sport and Leisure Development Team in
partnership with the Sports Development Department at the University
of Bath.
This event mirrors the National TOP
Link conferences held on Thursday, March 25 as part of the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s ‘Step into Sport’
initiative.
Cllr Nicole O’Flaherty, Executive
Member for Tourism Leisure and Culture said: “The young leaders
involved are part of the Youth Sport Trust’s TOP Link initiative,
which fosters leadership skills in young people by encouraging
secondary age students to organise and stage festivals of sport or
dance for primary or special school children in their local area.
“Bath & North East Somerset Council
thinks it is a very good initiative which encourages young people to
carry on with Sport’s activities at an age when some might decide
that sport is no longer for them.”
This year the Youth Sport Trust have
been working with the British Olympic Association on developing
extra TOP Link resources for schools festivals which will have an
Olympic theme in celebration of Athens 2004 and therefore encourage
the students to stage their festivals on 23 June – International
Olympic Day.
This conference will provide the
secondary school students with all the information and training they
need to run a successful TOP Link Olympic festival during May to
July 2004.
The university students will lead
workshops providing practical advice and guidance on how to run a
successful TOP Link festival.
This will include topics such as
managing the festival team, the media and the event, health and
safety and the importance of nutrition in sport.
In the afternoon the school pupils
themselves will have the opportunity to lead practical activities
and fun games based on the Youth Sport Trust TOP programmes.
All of the activities provide the
school pupils with additional ideas for their festivals and will
enable them to run safe and enjoyable sports events in their home
communities.
Over the summer of 2004, it is
anticipated that more than 1,000 Olympic–themed TOP Link festivals
will be run by over 4,000 young leaders across the country.
Notes to Editors:
TOP Link is a programme for 14 to 16
year olds co-ordinated by the Youth Sport Trust, which encourages
secondary schools and colleges to develop links with their local
primary schools and aims to foster leadership skills in young
people. The programme is helping to nurture a new generation of
sports leaders and future coaches, official and administrators.
The Youth Sport Trust is a registered charity established in 1994
to improve sporting provision for children in the UK. Its mission is
to develop and implement, in close partnership with other
organisations, quality physical education and sport programmes for
all young people aged 18 months to 18 years in schools and the
community. Please call us on 01225 477283 if you experience any
problems with the attachment
For more information, contact:
Laura Fear, Step
into Sport Co-ordinator, on Tel: 01225 396456 or e-mail laura_fear@bathnes.gov.uk
For comment,
contact:
Cllr Nicole
O’Flaherty, Executive Member for Tourism, Leisure and Culture, on
Tel: 01225 310341 or e-mail
nicole_oflaherty@bathnes.gov.uk
Issued by: Bath &
North East Somerset Press Office, tel 01225 477827 or 477283, email:
pressoffice@bathnes.gov.uk |
