WHAT ARE THE SCHOOL GAMES?

The School Games are a unique opportunity to motivate and inspire millions of young people across the country to take part in more competitive sport. The Games are made up of three levels of activity: competition in schools, between school and at a county.area level:

• Intra-school -(Level 1) - sporting competitions for all students in school through intra-school competition. Harris SSP facilitate and deliver these events.
• Inter-school (Level 2) - individuals and teams are selected to represent their schools in local inter-school competitions. Harris SSP facilitate and deliver these events.
• School Games (Level 3) - the county/area of Coventry, Solihull & Warwickshire stage finals where the winners from each of the 8 areas meet for a County wide event.

Harris CofE Academy School Sports Partnership deliver The School Games for the Eastern Warwickshire area, with Simon King being the School Games Organiser.

The Games are designed to build on the magic of 2012 to enable every school and child to participate in competitive sport, including meaningful opportunities for disabled youngsters. Nationally and locally the School Games is being delivered through partnerships. The national partnership is made up of:

• the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which has overall policy leadership, supported by the Department for Education (DofE) and the Department for Health (DOH)
• Sport England, which is the Lottery distributor and are supporting the engagement of Sports Governing Bodies and County Sports Partnerships
• The Youth Sport Trust (YST), the landscape lead organisation for school sport which has been commissioned by Sport England to provide development support to school, sports and other local partners

Over £128 million of Lottery and Government funding is being invested to support School Games. This includes: upto £35.5m Lottery funding from Sport England between 2010-15; £28.4 exchequer funding from the Department of Heath and Sport England to fund 450 School Games Organisers (SGO's) and Change4Life clubs.

At a local level, the School Games will be delivered by schools, clubs, county sports partnerships and other local partners. Local Organising Committees (LOCs) are being set up, chaired by Headteachers, to oversee the county festivals. County sports partnerships have an important role to play in helping to stage the festivals.

The School Games is free to access for all schools. As well as delivering The School Games free at the point of access for all schools, our subscription package supplements this offer by delivering additional competitions, festivals, leadership programmes and strategic support. Please contact the SSP office to see how the SSP can supplement The School Games offer in your area.

All schools are able to take part in the School Games once they have registered. Make sure your school is involved in the School Games - register now by visiting www.yourschoolgames.com