Students at Nelson and Colne College Sixth Form will benefit from an amazing investment: over £57,000 of National Lottery money from Sport England’s Further Education Activation Fund.
Sport England’s Active People Survey showed that students in further education colleges play the least sport of any young people aged 16 or over who are still in education. Sport England’s Further Education Activation Fund aims to boost the number of students taking part in sport by supporting colleges to design and develop projects tailored to the sporting needs of their students, and Nelson and Colne College Sixth Form is pleased to take up this challenge!
The College’s dedication to healthy living and lifestyles is outstanding; students have already benefited from recent investment which led to the creation of the 3G all-weather sports pitch and multi-use games area and the creation of a larger, well-equipped Gym. Students are able to use these facilities, as well as the existing Sports Hall, in regularly scheduled sessions each weekday. The College is one of only 62 projects at further education and sixth form colleges across the whole of England to benefit from Sport England’s Further Education Activation Fund, to encourage its students to get up and get active!
A dedicated Sport Maker, Alexis Walker, has been employed at the College for over a year; and now, thanks to the recent funding, a new part-time Sport Activator, Anna Hollingworth, has been appointed to help drive and deliver the new two year project, which will focus on four different aspects with very precise aims.
One is to encourage tutors to embed more physical activity into the curriculum, the second will encourage student volunteers to organise and manage extra-curricular sessions, a third will project will be aimed at arranging friendly fixtures to increase competition and the fourth aspect will strengthen club links by facilitating offsite activity opportunities.
Alexis Walker, College Sport Maker, said, “This Lottery funding means we can widen our sporting provision to directly target curriculum areas, helping us further embed the importance of physical activity in all areas of college life. Having listened to the students, we can now offer more opportunities for fixtures as well as more support in up-skilling coaches and volunteers of the future. I believe our project will improve the health and well-being of our students, raising their aspirations and their quality of life in college.”
Sport England Chief Executive, Jennie Price, said: “Our investment in further education and sixth form colleges is vital if we are to get more young people playing sport. By investing in Nelson and Colne we’re helping to make sport more accessible, more attractive and more convenient to young people as they move on from school to college.”
In the photo: Anna Hollingworth, Michelle Weyer, Denice Health, Samantha Nolan, Claire Matthews, Elizabeth Mitchel, Amanda Hogarth, Denise Almond, Janet Harris and Jacqueline Ashton.
