Schools Case Studies
Nottingham City School Sport Partnership Rowing Initiative
Date Added: Tue, 03 Apr 2007
Related tags: Competition, Key Stage 4, Key Stage 3, Extra-curricular, Inter-school, Rowshows, Indoor League, Nottingham
In May of 2003 the Nottingham City SSCO Partnership secured a New Opportunities Fund bid to develop rowing as a school sport, predominantly at the secondary age group. Rowing was identified as a focus sport following an audit of provision which also included pupil questionnaires. Working with Concept 2, a development plan was established for the 3 years of the funding and beyond.
In the first year of the programme Concept 2 delivered "Row Shows" into all 8 of the partnership secondary schools to generate interest in indoor rowing. Row Shows were also delivered in the 3 special schools in the partnership. These highly active and fun days impacted, on average, with 200 children per school and created a huge demand for the sport. Following the Row Shows, Concept 2 loaned 3 rowing machines per school for the school to establish indoor rowing clubs. Following instructor's training courses for school staff, all schools are now running out of school hours rowing clubs for all interested pupils.
This year, the second of the programme, schools have continued to deliver OSHL rowing clubs and all schools received a row show including the "row to health" project. The first Nottingham Indoor Rowing Championships, supported by Concept 2, took place in November with 11 schools entering the competition and a total of 200 pupils taking part. As a result of this competition the Nottingham City Schools Rowing Team was selected to enter the British Indoor Rowing Championships in Birmingham. Considering the limited amount of rowing experience gained by the students, their performance at the BIRC was outstanding with 3 boys in the first 5 of the year 7 race, including the champion rower, and 5th place in the year 7 girls' race along with many other outstanding results.
The SSCO partnership has now established an indoor rowing league attended by 10 schools bringing 20 students per school to each of 4 league competition nights. Two league meetings have taken place so far with rowers participating in a variety of race formats. The feedback from these competitions has been extremely positive and has generated even more enthusiasm for the sport.
Aims for this year include bids for funding to secure the sustainability of the programme, links with Project Oarsome at Holme Pierrepont to give pupils an opportunity to row on the water and to support the involvement of students with local rowing clubs in order to provide exit routes for talented/interested youngsters outside of the school programme. The programme goes from strength to strength and rowing is becoming an established new school sport which is even being integrated into some schools' PE curriculum.
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