SCHOOL SPORT: ‘Make It Happen’
Olympian Athlete Inspires Hollington Schoolkids
HUGH SULLIVAN
Sport is part of the curriculum at Hollington Primary School. There are two PE lessons a week with staff teacher Marlon Diamond. There’s running and football at lunchtimes, and netball and table-tennis clubs after school. But basic tools are lacking: cricket needs bats and balls, gymnastics some rings and bars, the playground equipment needs replenishing. For all the fine promises of politicians and administrators – see the adjacent column – sport is not a big priority when it comes to squeezed education budgets.
Marlon has, however, found a way forward. He has invited Great Athletes, a social enterprise whose aim is to inspire children and young people to increase sporting and physical activity or, in their own words, “to have fun whilst keeping active”, to send an international sports star to spend a morning at the school.
The star is to lead a course of aerobics for all the year groups, then deliver an inspirational address. The cost of the event is to be covered by sponsorship, all the children of the school receiving pledge forms to be handed to parents, grandparents or other well-wishers to offer contributions. The resulting pot of money will then be shared out between the school and the enterprise, with the former earmarking its portion for the equipment that’s needed.
So here is Heather Olver, arriving with red-shirted assistant at the school assembly hall in Hollington Old Lane on a wet Wednesday morning. She’s a former badminton international and competitor at the Rio Olympics eight years ago, and still looks the part – slim, fit and bouncing in smart gym gear. Her junior hosts, dressed in standard white shirts, grey pullovers, dark skirts or trousers, shuffle into the hall in year groups. A bunch of 150 milling adolescents might overfill the confines of the hall, but for 150 smaller children it’s spacious enough. And Years 3 and 4 are, as it happens, away on a trip to the Tower of London today. Marlon greets years 1, 2, 5 and 6 and sorts them into groups of nine or ten, then it’s over to Heather to lead each in a series of aerobic routines to a disco beat.
As you’d expect from a one-off session like this, there’s a hotchpotch of disparate responses. There are few obese kids, but some take to the exercises with natural coordination, others less so. It’s not too strenuous – few remove their jumpers. But they’ve all at least had their heart rates raised.
A SPORTING CAREER
Then Heather sits them down and tells them the story of her career in badminton – how she started at a club aged eleven, very nervous and shy, needing a friend to go with her. Later, when she showed talent, and her parents were driving her an hour and a half each way to the regional centre for two hours practice each week, she wondered if all the training sessions were worthwhile. Her coach told her – “It’s down to you to make it happen… Believe in yourself!”
She introduces a short film of badminton highlights, shows the kids a shuttlecock, and tells them that a smash propels it faster than any other projectile in sport. Then she fields questions. One girl asks – “What’s it like to be an athlete?” Tough, Heather replies, “but it’s fantastic to travel the world. It was my dream, and I was happy to do it”.
The highlight of the morning for the kids is reached when Heather challenges Marlon to a training exercise. He has to lunge alternately to left and right, hand-swatting a series of shuttlecocks as she feeds them either side. “Mis-ter Dia-mond”, the junior audience chant in support of their local champion. He performs creditably. The honour of the school has been upheld.
Marlon reported a few days later that over £1,300 has been raised in sponsorship funds, with the majority of this sum to be retained for spending on new equipment. Many children have told him how much they enjoyed the event. And he’s hoping to invest in some racquets and shuttlecocks for a new badminton club, by popular request.
Government Not Making It Happen
Policy documents issued by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport constantly stress the health, social and economic benefits of sport.
Sporting Future: a new strategy for a more active nation, issued in 2015, promised government funding for sport and physical activity projects that contributed positively to such benefits. A School Sport and Activity Action Plan of July 2019 aimed “to provide more pupils with increased opportunities to play sport and take exercise during their time at school”.
A policy paper issued by then Sport Minister Lucy Frazer in August 2023, Get Active: a strategy for the future of sport and physical activity, proclaimed: “Whoever you are, or wherever you live, there should be good facilities, a strong network of sports clubs that are open to you, great sport and physical activity opportunities in schools, and confidence in sport and the sector.”
It promised to deliver “multi-million pound investment into grassroots facilities and [set] a clear strategic ambition for the future. This will mean facilities that reflect the needs of local communities, supported by hundreds of millions of pounds of government and local authority investment”. As to the latter, “it is vital that local leaders have the confidence and understanding of how investing in an active population can reduce the burden on other local services and infrastructure, such as GP surgeries.”
So where is this investment in Hastings sport from either central government or from the local authority?
The money for new equipment at Hollington Primary School, plus remuneration for Heather’s inspirational visit, was raised in cash from local families. In Hastings, if you want to make things happen, you have to do them yourself.
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
Leave a Reply