East Renfrewshire youngsters get physical thanks to Active Schools

The latest data published by sportscotland shows that Active Schools is going from strength to strength with national figures at an all-time high and 7.3 million participant sessions delivered in 2017/18, an increase of 6 per cent from 2016/17.

East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure ran 150,931 participant sessions in the last year.

There has been a 2 per cent increase overall in the percentage of the school roll now participating in Active Schools sessions nationally, and a 6 per cent increase in the number of activity sessions, 6,969 of those sessions delivered in East Renfrewshire.

Mel Young, chair of sportscotland, said: “It’s really encouraging to see the continued growth in participation in Active Schools activities across the country.

“The success of Active Schools is the result of strong local partnerships between Active Schools teams, school staff, sports development teams in local authorities, regional managers from the governing bodies, and local sports clubs.

“By working together, we can deliver more and better opportunities for young people of all abilities to take part in sport as these latest figures show.

“It is also rewarding to see the impact of programmes like Active Schools on the lives of the young people who take part, increasing their confidence and motivating them to continue an active lifestyle in the future.”

Active Schools, one of sportscotland’s longest running flagship programmes, is designed to provide more and higher quality opportunities to take part in sport and physical activity before school, during lunchtime and after school.

Developing effective pathways between schools and sports clubs in the local community is also a priority and this year schools in East Renfrewshire have identified 212 examples of links being reported including extracurricular links and holiday programmes.

Anthony McReavy, chief executive of East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure, which delivers the Active Schools programme on behalf of the council, said: “Encouraging our residents to become involved in sport and physical activity as early as possible is so important. By taking part in Active Schools sessions our children and young people have the opportunity to try new sports and develop a lifelong love for participation.

It’s extremely pleasing that more than 8,000 pupils took part in our sessions in the past year, the most ever in the area, and with more than 150,000 sessions delivered this is a record too. It’s certainly been a record-breaking year and our team are committed to continuing to provide more variety each year as we aim to encourage even more people to get involved.”

The full report can be accessed on the sportscotland website: Active Schools report