The pandemic saw activity levels plummet, but now Active Gloucestershire is on a mission to help healthy living bounce back.
Thanks to £726,000 from the Department for Education, the charity is supporting 22 schools to open their facilities to the public.
In a bid to tackle health and social inequalities, money is being given to schools in more deprived areas to help those who find it more challenging to be active.
One of the schools to receive a share of funding is Springbank Primary Academy in Cheltenham, which is one of eight academies within the Gloucestershire Learning Alliance Multi-Academy Trust.
Consultation with pupils and parent groups showed not all pupils could access the school’s existing clubs and there was a need for more opportunities for students to be active before school.
In response, Springbank Primary has used the funding to provide additional extra-curricular multi-sport activities using its school hall and playing field.
The funding has allowed the school to buy a range of additional sports equipment and has enabled them to develop their work with Move More, a local charity which provides high quality PE and school sports provision across Cheltenham and Tewkesbury.
Chief operations officer of the Gloucestershire Learning Alliance, Hannah Dell, said: 'This funding has really helped us to engage more of our children in physical activity and has allowed us to provide additional clubs outside of school hours where our existing clubs were oversubscribed.
'The input and support we have received from Move More has been fantastic and it is great knowing this funding is really making a difference to our local community.'
The funding is part of a three-year investment which will run until March 2025.
Schools can use the funding to purchase equipment to deliver new or additional clubs, train employees to obtain qualifications, to deliver new or additional activities and to pay for activity deliverers to run the clubs. They can also use funding to provide swimming and water safety lessons during and outside of the school day.
Over this time, Active Gloucestershire will continue to support schools to open their facilities to increase the range of opportunities for pupils, their families and the wider community to take part in sport and physical activity and to help tackle inequalities in access to these throughout the county.
If your school would like to open its facilities visit activegloucestershire.org.
