News Archive
High-tech gym launched in Bath
A HIGH-tech gym exclusively for children has been launched in Bath to encourage youngster to get active following the UK's growing obesity epidemic.
The gym, known as "Active Zone", gives young people aged from eight to 15 opportunities to try alternative workouts in a stimulating and supervised environment.
Aquaterra's Leisure's Contract Manager, Tim Ridley, said: "The main goal of Active Zone is to encourage youngsters to enjoy an active lifestyle while taking part in fun activities.
"It will help them to pick up good habits from an early age and also offers a new way to get active for those young people who arenít interested in traditional team sports such as football."
The focus is on fun, with high-tech equipment, funky pop music, and enthusiastic instructors on hand to encourage youngsters to get active.
Facilities offered include dance mats with interactive screens, X Box games that are operated by body movements, and an interactive 'sports wall' which children use by throwing balls or using other equipment to activate flashing lights.
Active Lifestyles Manager, Lynda Dean, said: "The magic of the gym is that they will be so involved in interactive games and busy having fun that they wonít realise they are exercising."
Other facilities include specially adapted weights, treadmills, and exercise bikes for youg people. Junior classes in spinning, aerobics, yoga, Pilates, Kung Fu, street dancing, golf and circuit training are also available.
Over £100,000 has been invested in this project by Aquaterra Leisure including a contribution of £20,000 from the Council. It is expected that the scheme could be used as a model for facilities to be developed in other UK sports centres managed by Aquaterra Leisure.
Coun Paul Crossley said: "Good habits should start at a young age and the Active Zone will help youngsters to have fun while improving their fitness levels, building confidence and making new friends."
A HIGH-tech gym exclusively for children has been launched in Bath to encourage youngster to get active following the UK's growing obesity epidemic.
The gym, known as "Active Zone", gives young people aged from eight to 15 opportunities to try alternative workouts in a stimulating and supervised environment.
Aquaterra's Leisure's Contract Manager, Tim Ridley, said: "The main goal of Active Zone is to encourage youngsters to enjoy an active lifestyle while taking part in fun activities.
"It will help them to pick up good habits from an early age and also offers a new way to get active for those young people who arenít interested in traditional team sports such as football."
The focus is on fun, with high-tech equipment, funky pop music, and enthusiastic instructors on hand to encourage youngsters to get active.
Facilities offered include dance mats with interactive screens, X Box games that are operated by body movements, and an interactive 'sports wall' which children use by throwing balls or using other equipment to activate flashing lights.
Active Lifestyles Manager, Lynda Dean, said: "The magic of the gym is that they will be so involved in interactive games and busy having fun that they wonít realise they are exercising."
Other facilities include specially adapted weights, treadmills, and exercise bikes for youg people. Junior classes in spinning, aerobics, yoga, Pilates, Kung Fu, street dancing, golf and circuit training are also available.
Over £100,000 has been invested in this project by Aquaterra Leisure including a contribution of £20,000 from the Council. It is expected that the scheme could be used as a model for facilities to be developed in other UK sports centres managed by Aquaterra Leisure.
Coun Paul Crossley said: "Good habits should start at a young age and the Active Zone will help youngsters to have fun while improving their fitness levels, building confidence and making new friends."
PM's specialist schools plan
TEN more specialist sports schools and colleges will be created in England during 2007, the Prime Minister has announced.
Tony Blair told delegates, including Olympic Gold medal winner Kelly Holmes at the Sports Colleges conference that school sport was a "hidden success story".
He said: "The first colleges will soon be celebrating their 10th birthday, and have helped transform the landscape of physical education."
According to the prime minister the percentage of pupils at Sports Colleges who got five or more good GCSE passes has gone up from 49.0 per cent to 54.2 per cent in the last two years.
This means that Sports Colleges are now the fastest improving schools, academically, of all specialist schools.
Blair said: "We inherited a sense of pervading gloom with lots of people saying it can't be done.
"This was lifted by a combination of investment, much needed and indispensable, and reform, to create new types of institution that released the drive and creativity of staff."
"Ten years ago there was hardly any direct investment in school sport. Since then, over £1.5 billion of government and Lottery funding has been invested in school sport. With more to come.
"80 per cent of pupils are now doing at least two hours of PE and sport in a typical week. That's up nearly 30 per cent from 2003/04. We set ourselves a target of 75 per cent and exceeded it by five percentage points."
The government is planning changes to PE lessons to help children avoid the problems of obesity.
Lessons will combine physical activity with learning how exercise affects fitness and health, and give schools more flexibility to run the physical activities that best meet pupils' needs.
Blair said: "By 2008 85 per cent of children are set to do at least two hours of high quality PE and school sport in a typical week. By 2010 we want all children to be offered at least four hours of sport every week."
TEN more specialist sports schools and colleges will be created in England during 2007, the Prime Minister has announced.
Tony Blair told delegates, including Olympic Gold medal winner Kelly Holmes at the Sports Colleges conference that school sport was a "hidden success story".
He said: "The first colleges will soon be celebrating their 10th birthday, and have helped transform the landscape of physical education."
According to the prime minister the percentage of pupils at Sports Colleges who got five or more good GCSE passes has gone up from 49.0 per cent to 54.2 per cent in the last two years.
This means that Sports Colleges are now the fastest improving schools, academically, of all specialist schools.
Blair said: "We inherited a sense of pervading gloom with lots of people saying it can't be done.
"This was lifted by a combination of investment, much needed and indispensable, and reform, to create new types of institution that released the drive and creativity of staff."
"Ten years ago there was hardly any direct investment in school sport. Since then, over £1.5 billion of government and Lottery funding has been invested in school sport. With more to come.
"80 per cent of pupils are now doing at least two hours of PE and sport in a typical week. That's up nearly 30 per cent from 2003/04. We set ourselves a target of 75 per cent and exceeded it by five percentage points."
The government is planning changes to PE lessons to help children avoid the problems of obesity.
Lessons will combine physical activity with learning how exercise affects fitness and health, and give schools more flexibility to run the physical activities that best meet pupils' needs.
Blair said: "By 2008 85 per cent of children are set to do at least two hours of high quality PE and school sport in a typical week. By 2010 we want all children to be offered at least four hours of sport every week."
Top award for school
A SCHOOL in Wansbeck, Northumberland has been recognised with a national award for getting youngsters active through a range of sports and activities.
Windsor First School has been awarded The Activemark Award by the Department for Education and Skills for exceptional delivery of the National School Sport Strategy.
At least 90 per cent of pupils at the school take part in two hours of PE and Sport each week and a fun sports day.
Headteacher Anne Carter said: "We're really pleased to be awarded the Activemark 2006 because it recognises what the staff already know: that access to regular sport has enormous benefits for our pupils. At Windsor we know the benefits of sport to our pupils. With regular exercise they get healthy, have fun and learn life skills such as the importance of teamwork."
The school is one of only about 3,500 primary schools to be awarded the accolade nationally.
Pupils have a range of sports and after school clubs to choose from including dance, football, netball, multi-skills and even archery.
A SCHOOL in Wansbeck, Northumberland has been recognised with a national award for getting youngsters active through a range of sports and activities.
Windsor First School has been awarded The Activemark Award by the Department for Education and Skills for exceptional delivery of the National School Sport Strategy.
At least 90 per cent of pupils at the school take part in two hours of PE and Sport each week and a fun sports day.
Headteacher Anne Carter said: "We're really pleased to be awarded the Activemark 2006 because it recognises what the staff already know: that access to regular sport has enormous benefits for our pupils. At Windsor we know the benefits of sport to our pupils. With regular exercise they get healthy, have fun and learn life skills such as the importance of teamwork."
The school is one of only about 3,500 primary schools to be awarded the accolade nationally.
Pupils have a range of sports and after school clubs to choose from including dance, football, netball, multi-skills and even archery.
Olympic overspend threatens grassroots sport
GRASSROOTS sport could become the victim of an Olympic overspend, an industry body has warned.
The Central Council of Physical Recreation (CCPR), fears that spending cuts could threaten the potential for community sport to deliver the next generation of elite athletes, as well as undermine sports clubs' ability to meet the growing demands of the Government's health agenda.
CCPR chief executive, Tim Lamb, said: "I am concerned that, as costs rise, the commitment to using the Games to get more people involved in sport and recreation will be forgotten.
"Community clubs have to operate to strict budgets or they go bust - the Government needs to show that same discipline with their Olympic costings, otherwise it is community sport which will lose out.
"The Government needs to get its Olympic sums spot on. The idea that cost over-runs are inevitable is not something that private sector enterprises would accept and it's not something that sports clubs will accept either."
CCPR is leading a campaign on behalf of its members to ensure that funding for grassroots sports is not affected from government overspend on the Olympic and Paralympic games.
Tim said: "It simply won't be acceptable if, for example, four years down the line funding to grassroots sport is halved and the promise to get more people involved in sport is quietly swept under the carpet.
"Tough decisions will have to be made about what is funded and what isn't and one of the things that cash must be found for in the run-up to the Games is grassroots sport.
"The debate around the cost of the Olympics is important, but it's only useful if the Government has identified what it really wants from the Games.
"If its focus is on regeneration of the East End, rather than getting people active, then it should come clean and say so. But if it's healthier people and regeneration, we need a strategy and investment for both. They won't just happen automatically."
GRASSROOTS sport could become the victim of an Olympic overspend, an industry body has warned.
The Central Council of Physical Recreation (CCPR), fears that spending cuts could threaten the potential for community sport to deliver the next generation of elite athletes, as well as undermine sports clubs' ability to meet the growing demands of the Government's health agenda.
CCPR chief executive, Tim Lamb, said: "I am concerned that, as costs rise, the commitment to using the Games to get more people involved in sport and recreation will be forgotten.
"Community clubs have to operate to strict budgets or they go bust - the Government needs to show that same discipline with their Olympic costings, otherwise it is community sport which will lose out.
"The Government needs to get its Olympic sums spot on. The idea that cost over-runs are inevitable is not something that private sector enterprises would accept and it's not something that sports clubs will accept either."
CCPR is leading a campaign on behalf of its members to ensure that funding for grassroots sports is not affected from government overspend on the Olympic and Paralympic games.
Tim said: "It simply won't be acceptable if, for example, four years down the line funding to grassroots sport is halved and the promise to get more people involved in sport is quietly swept under the carpet.
"Tough decisions will have to be made about what is funded and what isn't and one of the things that cash must be found for in the run-up to the Games is grassroots sport.
"The debate around the cost of the Olympics is important, but it's only useful if the Government has identified what it really wants from the Games.
"If its focus is on regeneration of the East End, rather than getting people active, then it should come clean and say so. But if it's healthier people and regeneration, we need a strategy and investment for both. They won't just happen automatically."
