Fit to Succeed - Toolkit - Case Studies
CASE STUDY 2

Devon School Sport Coordinator Programme

The school sport coordinator programme (SSCo) is part of the Government’s plans to provide more and better physical education and sporting opportunities for young people. The aim is to have 1000 coordinators and 5000 primary Link Teachers in place across the country by 2004.

The fit to succeed initiative fits well within the nature of the school sport coordinator programme in a variety of different ways.
  • Both share the key aims for increasing the activity level of youngsters
  • Both are run as a partnership approach and aim to support busy teachers rather than to increase the burden placed upon them.
  • They plan to increase the number of qualified adults other than teachers available to support after school activities.
  • Both aim to build links with the school and its community.
  • The out of school hours learning objective is a key aspect of the SSCo programme.
  • Both aim to monitor the effectiveness of the intervention programmes.
Key outcomes that the two initiatives share include:
  • Increase participation among school age children
  • Increase participation by girls and young women
  • Improve motivation and attitude resulting in an increase in pupils’ achievement in all aspects of their school life.
The on-line baseline assessment questionnaire has been offered to a number of Partnerships in Devon to inform the development of the programme. Immediate feedback is available to each youngster that completes a questionnaire and any earlier finishers are invited to visit the government health website suitable for their age to explore the issues further.

Each school has a set of baseline information for their pupils separated by year group and gender. Each school is also provided with a written report that compares their school to the others in the survey.

The local coordinator is able to work with their primary link teachers to identify individual development programmes based on what the pupils have indicated that they are interested in.