Background

We are delighted to have been awarded a share of up to £57m worth of Opening School Facilities investment from the Department for Education, to support local schools to open their sporting facilities for local community and school users outside of the normal school day.

The Active Partnerships National Team were awarded the funding in collaboration with partners StreetGames, ukactive and the Youth Sport Trust. The Consortia will work together, supporting the local partnerships, to ensure the objectives of the programme are exceeded through collaboration and co-design. The shared goal of creating more positive experiences of physical activity for school and community users whilst focusing on those who need the most support will ensure we are narrowing inequalities which exist in our communities.

In Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin

Working with local communities facing the greatest inequalities, the funding will enable a minimum of 16 local schools up until March 2025 to open up their facilities for children, young people and the wider community to access more opportunities to be physically active, before school, after school, during weekends, evenings and school holidays. 

As well as supporting schools to provide more out of school opportunities for their school children and community users, priority will be given to:

• projects encouraging women and girls to be more active
• projects that help disadvantaged communities
• projects supporting culturally diverse communities
• projects supporting people with special educational needs, disabilities or long term health conditions.

Charlotte Priestley, Head of PE from Telford Langley School said:

“The main objective is to get girls involved in a different and exciting sport, so we will be offering a new trampoline club for all girls, regardless of income and socio-economic group, for girls to start a journey into something that could provide them with a lifelong love for sport”.

The Opening Schools Facilities funding will deliver localised activity across the county where it is needed most.

Pete Ezard, Chief Executive from Energize STW said:

“The Opening Schools Facilities Fund is a fantastic opportunity for sporting facilities to be made available to their local communities, particularly those facing the greatest inequalities across our County. The investment will give those communities, both young and old, greater access to sport and physical activities and address some of the physical activity inequalities Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin face.

We hope the initiative will create sustainable physical activity opportunities across those communities, creating healthier and more active lifestyles that will be seen for many years ahead.”

For more information, please contact Claire Mansfield