Britain’s most successful Olympian, Sir Steve Redgrave, has called for more investment in school sport.
Following the recent announcement of the Government’s plans to cut spending on school sport by £162million from next year, the five times Olympic Gold Medallist has spoken of the critical importance of investing in school sport.
“In these difficult economic times it would be easy to see how school sport could become less of a priority”, he said. “However, sport has a unique ability to transform lives – it can build self esteem and confidence in young people, it can increase achievement and attainment at school and it plays a huge part in ensuring young people lead healthy, active lives.”
Sir Steve was speaking in Manchester at the launch of the Matalan Sporting Promise, the Youth Sport Trust’s programme to get more young people taking part in sports. The initiative will provide resources and training to primary schools to help teachers deliver high quality PE and sport. It will also seek to re-engage those secondary school pupils who are not attracted to traditional sports by offering a range of new sporting choices.
