Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by United Learning

As Head of Sport for United Learning, a group of 31 independent schools and academies in England, I was very interested to see your teacher survey on school sports.

I wanted to make you aware of our research into the impact of the Olympic and Paralympic Games on the lives of our students.

We surveyed more than 2,500 United Learning students after London 2012. The survey demonstrated the positive impact of the Games, not only in terms of sports participation but also more widely in terms of motivation and attitudes. The key results were as follows:

Six in ten students said watching the Olympics had encouraged them to participate in more sport and 69% said they were going to try new sports because of London 2012.

86% said that London 2012 convinced them that anything is possible if they work hard enough.

83% said London 2012 made them rethink their attitudes towards disability (50% a great deal, 33% a little).

62% of students said that London 2012 made them want to volunteer.

Here at United Learning we believe that competition has an important role to play in school sport. The benefits of engaging in healthy competition are well-documented, developing skills, attitudes and qualities that can be applied elsewhere in our lives.

We encourage our schools to engage in inclusive, progressive, age-appropriate competition at both the intra-school and inter-school levels. Many young people in our schools and academies compete nationally and internationally in both individual and team sports.

We are also mindful that competition should not be the only way to engage in school sports. Indeed, some young people are turned off physical activity by an over-emphasis on competition. We therefore ensure that there is a good balance between competitive and non-competitive activities.

April 2013