A special scheme is celebrating ten years of helping children in the Vale of Glamorgan and Wales to get hooked on sport for life.
For the last decade, Sport Wales’ Dragon Sport scheme has been blazing a trail in providing fun and exciting extra-curricular sports activities for seven to 11-year-olds, giving them a fantastic start to their sporting education.
The lottery-funded scheme’s ten-year anniversary was marked with a celebration event at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay where a video showreel of the scheme in action was shown to Assembly Members and guests.
Among the schools featured on film was Palmerston Primary School, demonstrating the excellent impact that the scheme has had in the Vale of Glamorgan. Pupils at the school regularly enjoy taking part in a range of popular Dragon Sport clubs, and the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s Dragon Sport Assistant Pete Hardwick said: “The way that the pupils and teachers at Palmerston Primary School have embraced the scheme continues to impress me, and they fully deserved to be singled out and featured as an example of good practice.”
Dragon Sport focuses on introducing youngsters to eight key sports – athletics, cricket, hockey, tennis, golf, netball, football and rugby – and central to its success is the way volunteers are recruited and trained to deliver the activities.
Dragon Sport Organisers courses are run throughout the year, equipping volunteers with the skills they need to provide sports sessions for children. In addition to parents and teachers, dozens of sixth formers from local secondary schools have also been among those who have benefited from such training since the scheme began, including Rhodri Phillips, a year 13 pupil at Barry Comprehensive School.
Last summer, Rhodri was one of five pupils from the school who travelled to Sri Lanka to teach in local schools in association with the charity ‘Help Lanka’. Rhodri was able to put the skills he had learned on the Dragon Sport course into action, coaching local children in rugby.
Rhodri said: “Some of the children had never even heard of rugby before, let alone played it, but everyone wanted to get involved. The Dragon Sport training that I had received was very helpful and taught me how to structure a sports session. It also gave me more confidence and taught me the importance of preparation.”
After ten years of introducing young children to sport, as well as training budding coaches, it is hoped that the scheme will continue to make its mark in forthcoming years, as Professor Laura McAllister, Chair of Sport Wales, said: “Dragon Sport has increased participation and interest in sport amongst children aged seven to 11, particularly children who might not otherwise engage in extracurricular sport and amongst girls. It has also been a great stepping stone for producing well rounded athletes, such as Team Wales table tennis players Megan and Angharad Phillips.
“We want Dragon Sport to keep on growing in its ability to empower every child and young person in Wales to be physically confident, with the basic skills from an early age to be able to participate in a variety of sports.”
A few Dragon Sport statistics:
- In 2002, 58 per cent of pupils aged 7-11 in Wales took part regularly (once a week or more often) in extracurricular activity. When last measured in 2009, this had increased to 69 per cent (over 115,000 children).
- In 2009/10 Welsh children were lacing up their trainers to take part in Dragon Sport activities nearly 180,000 times compared to just over 12,000 times in 2000/01.
- Dragon Sport Coordinators delivered more than 66,000 sessions across the country in 2009/10 – a huge increase from the 2,000 sessions in its first year.
- Extracurricular football scores a big hit with girls, with 78 per cent of schools in Wales now serving it up compared to ten years ago when it was 57 per cent.
- While 64 per cent of schools now provide extracurricular netball for boys who want to shoot hoops, compared to 45 per cent a decade ago.
- Extracurricular rugby and cricket for girls have also boomed, rising from 40 per cent to 63 per cent and 29 per cent to 48 per cent respectively.
