Over 800 school children to attend the Leicester-Shire & Rutland School Games Summer Festival 2022!

For the first time since 2019, we are delighted to have the Leicester-Shire & Rutland School Games Summer Festival 2022 back as a "real-life" event on Friday 24^th June 2022.

The full day event kicks off with 800 students taking part in a mass dance routine to warm up ready for a day full of activity.

Delivered by Active Together, the School Games Summer Festival will not only see a range of County Finals taking place on the day in sports such as Netball, Hockey, Athletics and Sportsability, but also a selection of participation activities hosted by our Daily Boost, Change 4 Life, This Girl Can and County Leadership programmes where young people get to try out a range of sports and activities.

We are excited to announce that Leicestershire born, England Rugby Centre Emily Scarratt, who secured England's 2014 Women's World Cup triumph with six minutes left in the game, will join the students at the end of the day to congratulate and present trophies to the winners of the County Finals competition and 'Spirit of the Games' awards. Emily will also crown the overall 2021-22 partnership squad School Games Champions and Spirit of the Games Champions.

At the start of the 2021 / 22 academic year, in collaboration with our 8 School Sport & Physical Activity Networks, Active Together implemented a new approach to the delivery of our county wide school sport and physical activity offer. The 'Inspire – Develop - Excel model' seeks to support the wellbeing and development of ALL young people in LLR, and tackle inequalities through sport and physical activity. The event this year more accurately reflects this approach rather than the purely competitive sports event it has been in previous years.

County Final Competitions taking place:

• Quadkids Athletics - Year 3/4 and Year 5/6
• Quicksticks Hockey - Year 5/6
• Sportsability - Key Stage 2 Pan Disability – Multisport carousel for young people with SEND or disabilities.
• Netball - Year 5/6

Activity Sessions:

• Change 4 Life Festival - Fun, educational sessions revolving around simple physical activity, nutrition and healthy lifestyles.

• This Girl Can Festival - Giving girls from across the county the chance to engage with 3 of our professional sports clubs (LCFC, LCCC & Tigers), as well as TGC Ambassador, Natasha Mina.

• Year 7/8 Leadership Festival - Young Leaders from programmes run locally by the SSPANs come together for some additional training, team building and communication challenges as well as an opportunity to put their leadership skills into practice.

• Dance Mania Festival -An opportunity to take part in dance sessions across a range of styles of dance working with young leaders from Thomas Estley School who have developed and performed the event's mass warm up dance routine.

• Daily Boost Festival - Simple, fun and engaging sessions in alternative sports and physical activities that encourage children and young people to take part in regular daily physical activity both in and out of school.

Liam Drake, Active Together Sports Development Officer and Event Organiser says:

"The last couple of years have been extremely challenging for everyone associated with school sport and so we hope that this celebration event will prove to be a triumphant culmination of a lot of hard work from a lot of people. We hope that everyone involved in the day finds it enjoyable and that it inspires young people to continue to enjoy sport and physical activity both in and out of school, particularly those that may have found it difficult to take part in physical activity during and following the pandemic."

The Leicester-Shire & Rutland School Games, is part of the national 'School Games Programme'. It aims to keep competitive sport at the heart of schools and provide more young people with the opportunity to compete and achieve their personal best. It is open to all young people aged 6-18 years, of all abilities and backgrounds from every school across Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland.