Member Article

Schoolchildren inspired by Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls as part of countdown to Paris 2024

Children at Boldmere Junior School in Sutton Coldfield have been inspired to get active by Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls in a series of sport workshops. 

As Paris prepares to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, leading activity education and training provider Aspire Active Education Group is delivering Road 2 Paris school sport workshops across England to get young people moving ahead of the big event.

Aspire visited Boldmere Junior School on 23 February to deliver Olympic and Paralympic-inspired sport workshops to children aged 9 to 10, enabling them to try out wheelchair racing, goalball, archery and boxing. 

Wheelchair basketball Paralympian Siobhán Fitzpatrick and 400m sprint Olympian Sadam Koumi, who trains at Birchfield Harriers athletics club in Birmingham, delivered an assembly to the children and supported the sport activities. 

Siobhán commented: “It is always great to be involved in sport activities that inspire the next generation to get active. 

“It is through workshops like those delivered by Aspire that children can try different sports and find out what they are good at and enjoy.

“Without having been given the opportunity to try out a range of sports when I was young, I wouldn’t be competing at an international level now, so having a go at different things really is important.” 

Aspire Director Paul Griffiths, who launched Aspire with co-founder James Trowman, said: “Aspire are proud to be able to empower children in primary schools to try out different sports they may never have experienced before. 

“Since we launched our Olympic-themed workshops in the build-up to London 2012, they have gone from strength to strength. We have had 412 primary schools take part and 94,760 children engaged. 

“Our goal in everything we do is to get more young people active. We love sharing the magic of the Games with children and hope to inspire them to develop a positive, lifelong passion for physical activity.”

Karen Welch, Assistant Headteacher at Boldmere Junior School, said: “It was a huge privilege to welcome Siobhán and Sadam to our school, and we wish them well in Paris.

“The workshops delivered by Aspire were brilliant, with the children remaining engaged from start to finish. It has been fantastic to see them engage in new sports, be enthusiastic and have so much fun. All the children feel motivated to get active, which is exactly what we want to achieve at Boldmere.”

Aspire’s Road 2 Paris workshops, tailored to Key Stage 1 and 2 pupils, introduce children to a series of sporting activities rarely experienced at primary school. Themed around the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, activities include athletics, archery, wheelchair racing, goalball, shooting, boxing and boccia. 

The workshops are being delivered by Aspire across schools in the West Midlands and by 16 of Aspire’s partners across England. 

Based in Spitfire Road, Birmingham, and with 54 team members, Aspire provides innovative delivery and training services along with education resources with a vision to “end physical inactivity forever” and help one million children move by 2025. 

Founded in 2005, Aspire works with schools nationwide, providing PE, sport and physical activity support to get children moving. 

Aspire was crowned Business of the Year at the 2022 Birmingham Awards for its work tackling child inactivity and creating employment for young people in the region. The company also won the Education Engagement award for its impact on apprenticeships at the Greater Birmingham Apprenticeship Awards and the Tech Collaboration prize at the West Midlands Tech Awards 2022 for its work with app partner miMove in encouraging schools around Birmingham to be more active.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Osborn Communications .