School sports initiative to aid 2012 build-up

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced the Government is investing £100m in a sports drive that includes the launch an annual national school sports week. The aim is to give every child the chance of five hours of sport every week as part of a drive for a healthier Britain.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced the Government is investing £100m in a sports drive that includes the launch an annual national school sports week. The aim is to give every child the chance of five hours of sport every week as part of a drive for a healthier Britain.

He has called for a “united team effort” in the build up to 2012 to make sport a part of every child’s daily life. As well as offering greater opportunities to participate in sports both at and outside schools, plans include a greater emphasis on competition within and between schools, a network of competition managers and a new National School Sports Week.

The funding will provide up to five hours of sport a week for all pupils and three hours for 16 to 19-year-olds, a National School Sport Week, championed by Dame Kelly Holmes where all schools will be encouraged to run sports days and inter-school tournaments, and a network of 225 competition managers across the country to work with primary and secondary schools to increase the amount of competitive sport they offer.

Announcing the initiative the Prime Minister says: “We need to put school sport back where it belongs, playing a central role in the school day. I was lucky enough to have primary and secondary schools that had sport at the centre of their ethos. I want every child to have that opportunity to take part. Watching sport is a national pastime. Talking about sport is a national obsession. But now we need to make taking part in sport a national characteristic.”