Sporting Stars Set to Inspire Children to get Active

Olympic 400 metre runner joins children from St Vincent's

Olympic 400m runner, Jamie Baulch, and Commonwealth Triple Jump Champion, Julian Golly, joined together with children from local schools including Saint Vincent Roman Catholic Primary School to encourage children to play more sport via the exciting in-school programme, Super Schools.

Sponsored by organic children’s food company, Ella’s Kitchen, Super Schools provides a unique programme of activity for schools across England and Wales. The programme takes Olympic and Commonwealth athletes into schools so children can meet world class sporting stars and be inspired to lead a healthier more active lifestyle by trying new activities.

Super Schools allows children, aged 4 – 13, to have a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity to meet the athletes, listen to a motivational talk from the Olympian/Commonwealth champions and take part in a series of sponsored activities, raising money for their school. The athlete’s visit is designed to inspire, motivate and encourage children to get active or to join a local sporting club and may even create the spark to find a new sporting legend!

With the increasing focus on healthy eating and exercise and the growing trends in obesity and diabetes amongst the UK’s population of children, there is no better time for the new Director of Super Schools and Olympic Silver Medal winner, Jamie Baulch to get kids excited about sport. Jamie said: “Super Schools is a tremendous programme as it motivates children to take up sport and hopefully encourage them to achieve something amazing. With children in the UK leading increasingly sedentary lives and obesity on the rise, it’s really important that we help kick-start a child’s interest in sport at an early age.”

Paul Lindley, Ella’s Dad, founder of Ella’s Kitchen also said: “At Ella’s Kitchen we strongly believe getting kids to be healthy isn’t just about encouraging good eating habits – but about them being active too. The balance of ‘energy in and energy out’ is an important aspect of keeping healthy, and by teaming up with Super Schools we are encouraging kids, in a fun way, not to just eat healthily but be healthy.”

The school also benefits from the visit. Each child is encouraged to raise sponsorship money to take part in the activities and the money is put back in to the schools, often being passed to the Sports Department for new equipment – a vital resource given the average school annual budget for sports is only £200.

October 8, 2009