Children and Young People

Flying Start

The best start to being active

The two-year project managed and delivered by Castle Point and Rochford School Sport Partnership, has inspired reception aged children in Canvey schools to be active through an early positive experience with PE, by upskilling and increasing confidence through different teaching approaches. By being community-led, the programme quickly developed Flying Start Family festivals to get the whole family moving and engaged with physical activity, and a Saturday morning club.

It was identified that in order to improve levels of development, competence and understanding of the importance of being active on a daily basis, it was crucial to engage the families of these children to support the adoption of positive habits.

Taking place at Waterside Farm Leisure Centre, the Flying Start Family festivals provided the opportunity for children, young people, and their families to try a range of activities in an informal and relaxed environment. Supported and delivered by partner agencies such as Healthy Schools, Mobile Libraries and charities, it allowed the chance to consult families around the barriers and motivators to activity. Local organisations were then also engaged to ensure developments could be made to enhance the offer for the community on the island.

Who is it for?

Children, young people and their families on Canvey Island

Prime Objective:

to increase children’s positive attitudes towards physical activity

Second Objective:

to support the wider offer of opportunities on the island

Hear about the impact these opportunities had on families

Although Active Essex were a key partner, helping to secure funding, providing input with the design and development of the project, building relationships between local organisations and advocating the work across the sector, the success has been largely due to the determination of the partners involved.

This project has been extremely successful in bringing the community together, engaging parents and families, as well as school teachers and support staff. Stronger links have been made between the schools, families and the local council run leisure provider. It has become a fantastic blueprint for the Essex sector to utilise, highlighting the significance of coming together to ensure young people develop an early, positive relationship with physical activity.

schools and school staff fully engaged

week curriculum programme designed for schools

100%

of reception children engaged

Following the consultation at the first Family Festival, it was apparent there were not enough local opportunities for children at a young age to attend weekly community clubs.

With the support of Active Essex, and the Find Your Active Small Grants funding from London Marathon Foundation, a Flying Start Saturday morning club was developed, designed by the families engaged in this programme. Currently taking place for free over the course of a year, Active Essex are hopeful that this will help to create informed healthy habits among these families.

It has been great to understand the gaps in provision across the island, and to be able to offer Saturday morning clubs for free, has been really important. Led by the School Sport Partnership, the club has been fully booked, and displays the high demand to expand this type of offer on Canvey.

Lee Monk, Active Essex Relationship Manager

My class really enjoyed and benefitted enormously from the Flying Start and Beyond curriculum programme. I can already see how some children have built confidence both in PE and other areas of school life and now this will support them for their future development. Staff at my school learnt a lot through the team-teaching approach as well.

Annie Edmunds, Teacher at Winter Gardens Academy