Memorandum submitted by Youth Sport Trust
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Youth Sport Trust is an independent
charity focused on building a brighter future for young people
through high quality Physical Education (PE) and sport. Since
its creation in 1994, YST has sought to promote the importance
of PE and school sport and ensure that it is attractive, accessible,
affordable and appropriate to all young people.
1.2 A network of school sport partnerships
was established to improve the opportunities for PE and school
sport. There are 450 School Sport Partnerships covering every
maintained school in the country, each consisting of a sports
college or academy, secondary schools, primary schools and special
schools, working together to develop PE and sport opportunities
for all young people. The Youth Sport Trust provides support to
these partnerships, in addition to running number of programmes
targeted at young people. Winning the right to host the Olympic
and Paralympic Games in London in 2012 is a unique opportunity
to turbo-charge this work and ensure that PE and sport in schools
is revolutionised and embedded within the school system.
1.3 Over the past 15 years it has also looked
at the ways in which sport can impact on other areas of school
life. PE and sport are crucial components of a well-rounded education
provision, having the power to improve young people's physical,
intellectual, social and emotional development.
1.4 This response outlines the evidence
base supporting the statement that PE and school sport have a
positive impact on behaviour and attendance of young people in
schools.
2.0 RECOGNISING
THE ROLE
AND IMPACT
OF SPORT
2.1 There is a growing evidence base that
clearly demonstrates the impact of sport in improving behaviour
and attendance in schools. The improvement of both can also positively
impact on academic achievement. A number of recent reports and
"in progress" studies demonstrate the value of sport,
and competition in particular, in improving the behaviour of young
people. For instance, a recent Centre for Policy Studies report
says:
"Competitive sport provides many teenage
boys with what they crave—an outlet for their energy and
aggression, a group with which to identify and a chance to prove
themselves in front of their peers and to win the approbation
of older males. Boys are motivated by competition even if they
lose." Wasted: The betrayal of white working class and
black Caribbean boys, Harriet Sergeant, 2010.
Meanwhile, the Centre for Social Justice is
currently undertaking a project into harnessing the power of sport
to transform the lives of disadvantaged young people, recognising
that:
"Sporting activity can serve as a means
through which young people at risk of falling into crime, drug
addiction or youth unemployment can be engaged and steered into
educational or vocational schemes. In addition, much voluntary
sector work has focused on the impact that sport can have upon
pupil behaviour in schools, resulting in improved attendance,
concentration, goal-setting and even academic performance. The
possibilities for achievement and development contained within
organised, structured recreational programmes are especially valuable
when applied to those whose exclusion from education or involvement
in drug use or petty criminal activity has left them with no comparable
experiences." From the Centre for Social Justice website.
There is a long tradition of using sport and
arts activities to work with older disaffected and delinquent
young people, but little systematic evaluation of its efficacy.
With a climate of debate that increasingly recognises the role
of physical education and sport in improving behaviour, the Youth
Sport Trust would like to provide the factual evidence of a number
of qualitative research studies that demonstrate this statement.
3.0 THE EVIDENCE
BASE DEMONSTRATING
IMPROVEMENT ON
BEHAVIOUR AND
ATTAINMENT
3.1 One of the ways in which behaviour and
attendance can be improved is through the use of positive role
models. A number of programmes currently exist that see athletes
mentors providing mentoring and support to disengaged young people
through sport, with the goal of leading to a reengagement with
education as a whole. Athletes can show new opportunities and
encourage young people to widen their horizons, to self review
and to take on responsibility.
One of the programmes run by the Youth Sport
Trust with Sky Sports—Sky Sports Living for Sport—uses
sport to motivate and inspire 11-16 year olds to be the best they
can be. It's completely free and available to all secondary schools
in the UK. Since, 1993, over 1,000 schools have signed up.
The Youth Sport Trust commissioned the Institute
of Youth Sport at Loughborough University to carry out an independent
evaluation of the social and brand impact of Sky Sports Living
for Sport. The evaluation interviewed 220 secondary school teachers
who participated in the initiative between 2008 November and June
2010. The results showed that 83% of young people chosen to participate
in Sky Sports Living for Sport because of their attainment and
achievement have shown a positive improvement. 88% of young people
chosen to participate in Sky Sports Living for Sport because of
their self confidence and self worth have shown a positive improvement.
3.2 The Institute of Youth Sport has just
published a review of literature on the impact of PE and sport
on various educational outcomes.
On cognitive functions it concludes:
— A positive relationship exists between
physical activity and cognition with primary and middle-school
age children gaining the most benefit in terms of enhanced cognitive
function.
— Perceptual skills, attention and concentration
are all improved by a bout of physical activity, but perceptual
skills seem to benefit the most from prior exercise.
— Prior exercise may be beneficial for
cognitive function in both the morning and the afternoon as studies
have shown an improvement in adolescents' performance on visual
search and attention tests in the morning and on children's performance
in mathematics after an afternoon walk.
On classroom behaviours that may impact on academic
achievement it concludes:
— As little as 10 minutes of additional
organised physical activity in or outside the classroom implemented
into the school day improves classroom behaviour, and consequently
may enhance academic performance.
— The addition of break times when physical
activity is undertaken improves classroom behaviour and consequently
may enhance academic performance.
On school attendance it concludes:
— large cross-sectional studies have shown
a positive relationship between participation in sports programmes
and school attendance and between physical fitness and school
attendance.
3.3 Zoneparc is a primary playground project
aimed at tackling social exclusion and increasing activity levels
of young people by introducing innovative break time activities
and playground management systems to make break times safer and
more fun for everyone in school. In the Zoneparc project, the
great majority of participating schools highlighted behavioural
problems as one of the issues they faced, linking this with playground
experiences. Schools were also concerned about the impact of playground
behaviour on the classroom, as problems that arose during break
times could disrupt later lessons.
The quantitative data again provided some evidence
of positive impacts of Zoneparc. 40% of all children reported
that people fight and argue less in the new playground, while
staff indicate that the number of incidents of unacceptable behaviour
have decreased by 43% at Key Stage 1 and by 63% at Key Stage 2.
As such, the amount of time spent dealing with playground incidents
have, according to staff, decreased by 43% and 53% at Key Stage
1 and 2 respectively. These changes may not seem too significant,
however—numerous site visits, observations, discussions
and interviews indicate much more substantial and significant
changes. In this instance the survey findings may be skewed by
particularly negative results in one school where the project
was encountering a number of operational difficulties, some children
were disaffected from it, and many of the pupils described aggressive
incidents on the increase.
In the great majority of other schools it was
clear from the in-depth case study work that levels of aggression,
bullying and fighting had decreased dramatically. The proportion
of children who "felt safe" in the playground rose by
53%. This accords with the views expressed during the project.
The childrens' perception was straightforward: bullying had been
alleviated because "the bullies" were no longer under-occupied.
Staff agreed, and also highlighted the spillover benefit in the
classroom.
4.0 THE ROLE
OF SCHOOL
SPORT PARTNERSHIPS
AND SPORTS
COLLEGES IN
THIS IMPROVEMENT
4.1 The Youth Sport Trust believes its work
both as a charity and through School Sport Partnerships positively
improves behaviour in a number of ways. Programmes that provide
young people with positive role models, increased opportunity
and encouragement to take up leadership and volunteering roles
within school, and the benefits of a wider range of sporting opportunities
allowing anyone to find a pursuit that they enjoy, all encourage
better behaved and more motivated young people. The Youth Sport
Trust has commissioned a number of pieces of research that study
the impact of School Sport Partnerships and Sports Colleges, some
of which are detailed below.
4.2 The 2010 Institute of Youth Sport review
of literature on the impact of PE and sport on various educational
outcomes concludes that:
— In the UK the nationwide School Sports
Partnership programme has had a positive impact on attendance.
— To impact whole school attendance, physical
education and school sport programmes should be innovative, engage
the whole school in daily or weekly activity programmes and be
fully integrated within a multi-dimensional school aim of improving
attendance, increasing attainment, and changing attitudes to learning.
4.3 In 2007 the Youth Sport Trust commissioned
the Institute of Youth Sport at Loughborough University to investigate
the impact of specialist sports colleges on behaviour. This research
found that specialist sports colleges are significant centres
of innovation in addressing issues of attendance and behaviour
and their physical education departments often play a lead role
in devising, piloting and supporting initiatives designed to improve
attendance and behaviour. The three most obviously sports-related
initiatives (Sky Sports Living For Sport, cross-curricular links,
and sports leadership) were identified as making a substantial
contribution to improvements in behaviour. According to science
teaching staff, sports college status has had a positive impact
on:
— pupils' attendance (62% of respondents
who reported a change reported that sports college status had
had a positive impact);
— behaviour (particularly handing in of
homework);
— participating in lessons.
4.4 Findings from this study suggest that
there is an important role for physical activity/sport initiatives
in behaviour improvement; principally and most powerfully through
the development of skills and values that may be fostered readily
in and through physical activity. These include positive social
behaviours such as empathy, teamwork, cooperation and responsibility.
The findings from the case studies of this research echo the findings
in the broader research literature on the impact of PE and school
sport programmes on the development of skills such as teamwork,
a sense of personal responsibility, for example through leadership,
and improvements in self-esteem and self-confidence. However,
further research was necessary to be able to isolate the impact
of PE and school sport on behavioural outcomes.
5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Sport is a sizeable motivating factor
for young people and can be successfully used to improve behaviour
and attendance within schools, which in turn can lead to better
academic results and whole school improvement. There is an increasing
body of evidence to support this statement.
5.2 High quality PE and school sport should
form part of a well-rounded school curriculum, can be adapted
to include those young people not traditionally engaged in sport,
and can help young people to develop important life skills useful
in employment after their education. Working with partners across
the sport and education landscapes, including Olympics sponsors,
the Youth Sport Trust is developing interventions, programmes
and resources to engage all young people, tailoring where necessary
to recognise the need to engage particular types of young people.
5.3 School Sport Partnerships are having
a positive impact on school behaviour and attendance through their
delivery of high quality PE and sport opportunities. They provide
training and deployment opportunities for young leaders and volunteers
across the local area, increasing the numbers taking part far
beyond those that individual schools are able to reach. Leadership
and Volunteering is crucial in engaging young people with their
school, community and peers, and should be integral to the education
system.
5.4 School Sport Partnerships provide added
value for their government investment. As a single point of contact
they make it easier for NGBs, sports clubs and others to communicate
to schools and provide economies of scale in purchasing provision
(ie coaches). They should retain their funding following the 2010
Comprehensive Spending Review.
October 2010
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