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Our Olympic stars of tomorrow need decent school grounds
Added: (Thu Jul 14 2005)
There is no doubt that as the Olympics and 2012 approaches, sport and young people’s involvement in sport will have an incredibly high profile. Learning through Landscapes, the national charity that provides practical advice, campaigns and programmes related to the use and improvement of school grounds has welcomed the decision to host the games in London and endorsed its commitment to getting young people motivated into moving by the use of decent school grounds.
Peter Carne, operations director at Learning through Landscapes comments: “School grounds and their future potential, especially with regard to the forthcoming Olympics, needs to be at the forefront of discussions - especially as the school children of today are our Olympic stars of tomorrow. It is crucial to the nation’s effort to add value to the huge Olympic investment by motivating young people to get moving. They want to run around and be active and now everything will be focused on that with more schools taking an interest in sport. School grounds need to be developed to support this focus.”
Over the next year there will be hundreds of new projects and programmes launching to support the Olympics and Learning through Landscapes are keen that school playgrounds are a major focus for investment. Research has shown that school grounds are central in encouraging young people to take part in sporting activity by offering safe, extensive and well resourced spaces for training. Studies have also highlighted that improved school grounds can lead to:
· enhanced attitudes amongst pupils to learning
· a dramatic increase in the numbers of children enjoying their time at school
· a reduction in bullying, anti-social behaviour and accidents and
· long term improvements in children’s health and physical well being.
It is therefore evident that when schools grounds are developed and used creatively, they positively affect children’s attitude to play and outdoor learning. They are one of the few safe havens where children can play and learn together on a regular basis.
However, while school buildings and classrooms have changed dramatically over the last five years, many schools still have uninspiring and impoverished playgrounds. These definitely need investment to bring real tangible benefits to hundreds of thousands of school children and assist in the creation of the Olympians of tomorrow.
ENDS
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For further information please contact Helen Forrest, Communications Officer on 01786 466553
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Learning Through Landscapes give advice and support to schools on use, design, management and maintenance. Good school grounds not only provide the opportunity for exercise and creative play, but also add a new dimension to learning by offering direct contact with the natural world and practical hands-on experience. The charity gives guidance on how best to develop grounds to give the best chance of success and, crucially, on how to sustain them.