School Club Links
School Club Links is one of the eight PESSCL strands, and focuses its attention ‘outside the school gates’. It will play a major role in achieving the overall PESSCL target of increasing the proportion of children guided into clubs from School Sports Partnerships (SSPs). Strengthening links between schools and clubs can increase the number of children joining accredited sports clubs and creating a culture of participation from a young age.
Effective links will help young people adopt healthier lifestyles, enjoy sport, participate in a safe environment and achieve sporting success – key aims of the Every Child Matters agenda. The term ‘Sport’ includes dance, outdoor education and wider physical activity.
There are three targets specific to School Club Links:
To increase the number of accredited clubs. This ideally means clubs that are Clubmark accredited. To find out if a club has Clubmark accreditation please click on the link below. This is a national database which is regularly updated through information provided by the NGB's.
http://www.clubmark.org.uk/resources/clubmark-accredited-clubs-database
To increase the number of links with SSPs. It is not the aim to develop links with individual schools on an ad hoc basis, but to link with the growing network.
To increase the number of young people aged 5 – 16 who are members of accredited clubs
There are seven sports that receive the majority of the funding, known as focus sports:
- Athletics
- Cricket
- Football
- Gymnastics
- Rugby Union
- Swimming
- Tennis
A school club link is an agreement between a school or school sport partnership and a community based sports club to work together to;
- Meet the needs of young people
- Provide new and varied opportunities
- Help young people realise their ambitions
- Agree good standards of provision