A TEAM of 30 Merseyside teenagers are heading to Downing Street armed with 18,000 signatures, in a bid to save “vital” school sports provision.
The delegation heading to London tomorrow comes a month after the Daily Post revealed how around 170,000 Merseyside students are set to lose out after the Government pulled the plug on £4m a year sports funding from the region’s schools.
The axe is set to fall because the coalition has said that next year it will scrap Labour’s PE and Sports Strategy funding credited for boosting sport and physical exercise uptake, claiming it was too bureaucratic.
The scheme included improving provision at 16 Merseyside schools which double as specialist sports colleges. School sports co-ordinators were also based in every neighbouring secondary school to promote PE, deliver creative sports lessons and extra curricular clubs ranging from boxing to tennis.
The scheme also saw link teachers work in primary schools, and has allowed pupils to participate in almost 100 county sporting competitions.
Now students, who have used the scheme to improve their confidence and taken leadership programme, in areas ranging from music to sport, are to make their voices heard by staging a peaceful 10am protest outside Downing Street before their signatures will be added to those collected nationally and handed in to Education Secretary, Michael Gove.
Mersey teens making the trip include Tom Edwards, a leadership ambassador and head boy at Bebington High Sports College. Tom’s ambassador roles have included challenging primary pupils to spend 33 seconds – the same number as categories in the 2012 Olympics – on different activities ranging from basketball throws to skipping.
He said: “The younger people start in sport, the younger they understand and stay involved in it. We need to keep this funding.”
A dozen teenagers from Childwall Sports College are also London-bound, with the blessing of headteacher Dewi Phillips, who said transferable skills from the scheme like teamwork and motivation had not only boosted health but improved academic results.
“To lose this funding would be a retrograde step,” he said.
Michael Gove, the education secretary, insisted the shake-up did not amount to a cut as schools will receive funding directly and spend it as they wished – but organisers fear schools with other priorities will spend the cash elsewhere.
However, organisers have taken heart in comments made by Prime Minister David Cameron last week that he was “looking carefully” at the cuts with Downing Street conceding “there is some recognition this is being raised at local level”.
Those hoping for a U-turn include Carolyn Reid, a 2000 Sydney Olympian with the Great Britain hockey team, and Merseyside School Sport Partnerships development manager at Pensby High School for Boys.
She said: “To lose this infrastructure will see such vital opportunities for young people disappear. Not only has this raised standards and sporting provision across the schools, but it has taught the children life skills and how to be good citizens of the future.”
