Rob Shaw – Amber Valley School Sport Partnership CIO

In Camps

Welcome back! – A new year with AVSSP

01/12/2023

Welcome back! We hope everyone is settling into their school year. Here at AVSSP we started the year with our annual staff training. All staff renewed their First Aid qualifications with a course delivered by JWP Training.

Our Safeguarding Trustee, Wendy Lynam, delivered a refresher session that ensured all our staff were up to date with the newest policies and procedures for Safeguarding in 24/25. To finish the training days off, coaches Rachel and Adam shared ideas with the rest of the team to help with Dance and Gymnastics delivery for this academic year.

We are looking forward to getting stuck into this year with competitions, events, enrichment offers, high quality PE delivery, holiday camps and much more! See you soon 💙

In News

Enrichment Opportunities with AVSSP!

04/10/2023

As well as hundreds of inter-school competitions, AVSSP also offer a wide range of intra-school enrichment opportunities to children in Amber Valley. For example, our Tough Rower and Tough Runner are always very popular and usually get the most bookings per year.

We have lots of fun and engaging events that are designed to provide children with the chance to experience exciting new physical activity environments. Such as taking part in Olympic and Paralympic based sports whilst learning about the history of the event, or learning the art of self defence with Martial Art specialists and even trying new sports in our Pick ‘n’ Mix sports day event.

To learn more about our enrichment programme click here.💙

In Uncategorised

Competitions with AVSSP 24/25

12/07/2023

We have over 100 competitions planned for this year and we can’t wait to get started with them! From our popular Sports Hall Athletics to a brand new Panathalon and much more! Our competitions are always exciting evenings that allow hundreds of children to take part in physical activity whilst representing their school and competing with others.

We also run a wide range of festivals for children who don’t often engage in competitive sports to allow them to have the chance to represent their school in an environment they feel more comfortable in. This also includes our Plus events that are specifically held for SEN students across Primary and Secondary schools in the borough. We want to provide equal opportunities for all children regardless of their situation, personality type or sporting background.

If you haven’t already, be sure to sign your school up for as many of our competitions at you’d like to attend. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone again 💙

In Uncategorised

Staff CPD – A chance to improve

07/07/2023

As we come to the end of the first term a brief update on how our CPD programme has shaped up so far this year and what is upcoming in term two.

Our CPD programme aims to improve school staff confidence and competence within different areas of Physical Education, School Sport, and Physical Activity. By upskilling staff within schools, we are providing more sustainable opportunities for pupils to access and thrive within this sector and therefore promote active and healthy lifestyles.

This term we have had a total of 4 sessions two PE Practical Delivery Sessions in Athletics and Gymnastics and two PE and School Sport Improvement Sessions based around how to be a more active school and our guest speaker session with Teach Active on how to make Maths more active. These have been well attended with 20 different schools having accessed at least one of these sessions.

We know there is demand for Swimming CPD in the borough, something we’d hoped to deliver this term, but this has proven challenging to arrange. We hope to provide a positive update in term 2.

Also coming up in Term 2 are:

PE & School Sport Improvement Workshops

ECT PE Development: Tuesday 23^rd January 2024
Physical Literacy & Other Inclusive Interventions: Tuesday 12^th March 2024

Practical PE Delivery Workshops

Dance: Wednesday 7^th February 2024
Swimming: Date TBC

Our mid-year PE Subject Leader Meeting is also taking place during term two on Wednesday 14^th February. This will provide you with updates regarding competitions, summer term ideas/opportunities and looking in more detail at the recently released Sport England physical literacy consensus statement and what impact that could have within your school

In Uncategorised

Sports clubs – find one for you!

24/05/2023

AVSSP take pride in working with a wide range of community sports clubs in Amber Valley. From Athletics to Tennis and Dance to Martial Arts, we have lots of opportunities for children of all ages to get involved in physical activity outside of school.

Working with these clubs allows us to support our community even more and increase participation in physical activity in and out of schools. We want to create a community of fit, healthy and happy people that enjoy the many health and wellbeing benefits gained from physical Activity and Sport. Giving sports clubs the spotlight they deserve on our social media not only boosts their club and shows off all the amazing work they are doing, but it also provides the chance for clubs to gain new players and grow more and more.

If your child is interested in a specific sport head to the sports club section of our website to find a club that suits you.

In News

Staff CPD – A chance to improve!

13/04/2022

As we come to the end of the first term a brief update on how our CPD programme has shaped up so far this year and what is upcoming in term two.

Our CPD programme aims to improve school staff confidence and competence within different areas of Physical Education, School Sport, and Physical Activity. By upskilling staff within schools, we are providing more sustainable opportunities for pupils to access and thrive within this sector and therefore promote active and healthy lifestyles.

This term we have had a total of 4 sessions two PE Practical Delivery Sessions in Athletics and Gymnastics and two PE and School Sport Improvement Sessions based around how to be a more active school and our guest speaker session with Teach Active on how to make Maths more active. These have been well attended with 20 different schools having accessed at least one of these sessions.

We know there is demand for Swimming CPD in the borough, something we’d hoped to deliver this term, but this has proven challenging to arrange. We hope to provide a positive update in term 2.

Also coming up in Term 2 are:

PE & School Sport Improvement Workshops

ECT PE Development: Tuesday 23^rd January 2024
Physical Literacy & Other Inclusive Interventions: Tuesday 12^th March 2024

Practical PE Delivery Workshops

Dance: Wednesday 7^th February 2024
Swimming: Date TBC

Our mid-year PE Subject Leader Meeting is also taking place during term two on Wednesday 14^th February. This will provide you with updates regarding competitions, summer term ideas/opportunities and looking in more detail at the recently released Sport England physical literacy consensus statement and what impact that could have within your school.

In News

CPD with AVSSP

17/11/2021

After every half term, AVSSP staff come together on the first Friday back to learn new ways of teaching and new skills. The start of half-term 5 saw us take part in LTA’s brand new LTA Youth Primary School Teacher Training Course. The course took place at Alfreton Leisure Centre, home of our Holiday Camps, and ran during the morning before our coaches returned to their schools for the afternoon.

Our coaches worked in teams to plan and deliver a session from LTA’s new session planning booklets to eachother. We took part in skill games and added adaptations for specific needs such has hard of hearing or impaired vision. During the course, we learnt new teaching points that can help improve our lesson delivery and the excitement of our sessions.

We finished the session with team games and battled against each other to score points and be crowned the king or queen of Wimbledon! We would like to say a big thank you to LTA for coming and delivering the course for us, Andy was fantastic and very informative!

LTA also worked along side our Further Education Officer, Adam White, to deliver a CPD session to the teachers in our schools. Andy ran a similar session to what we received and Mr White some lovely feedback from all who attended.

Thank you to LTA for coming to up-skill our coaches and give us new ways to teach our lovely students! And thank you to Mrs Naylor for the donuts she provided on the day

In News

Inclusive Activity Club – A great success!

09/09/2021

Since the launch of Mrs Start’s Inclusive Sports and Activity Club, we have seen a huge increase in participation. A fantastic mixture of children join the club every Tuesday for an hour of active play and sport related games.

One parent who attend the club with their child said “the club is a great chance for children like my son to take part in a club outside of school that offers a wide range of activities for them to get stuck into. My son has had the chance to meet other children like him and his confidence has grown massively since coming.”

A child who regularly attends the club said “I love coming to Mrs Start’s club because i like playing with the different toys. I like the big ball and the fishes in the water.”

We love being able to offer an opportunity for children who wouldn’t usually attend and after school club, to come and experience playing with different children and developing new skills whilst having lost of fun.

We hope everyone is enjoying the club so far. If you would like to learn more about the cub, or book your child onto a session, head to the community section of our website! Thank you

In Primary

AVSSP Dodgeball events to engage over 1000 young people!

17/02/2020

This years Dodgeball events for KS1, Y3/4, Y5/6 and Plus students have already seen almost 950 students compete in a friendly, inclusive environment

With one event remaining we fully expect to top the 1000 pupil mark – a great example of the amazing support we receive from our affiliated schools and students

Sites in Belper, Heanor and Alfreton have seen a terrific standard of play but above all some amazing sportsmanship from so many participants. The events have been competitive but have also seen one team per event presented with a sportsmanship award while one individual per event has been named our honesty champion for demonstrating honesty above all other values

We’d also like to thank all parents and spectators for adopting AVSSP’s code of conduct and setting a great example to their youngsters!

Congratulations to every school and student who took part – we look forward to seeing you all at future events

In News

Gambia sports coaching programme extended!

07/02/2020

We are pleased to announce that after a successful 2019 AVSSP’s Gambia coaching programme has been extended for 2020 after an agreement with partner organisation Cosy!

The project started in 2018 with the aim of inspiring and upskilling Gambian children in sport, PE and physical activity. Our aim was to encourage local boys and girls to take part in fun, inclusive activity to ensure a lifelong habit of physical activity in a country where poor diet can regularly lead to health complications. By instilling a habit of physical activity we hope to have a positive impact on the lives of local Gambian children.

Not only that the programme also provides vital paid employment to 4 Gambian coaches who are tasked with increasing participation in clubs, schools and recreational areas in their locality – much like our staff in Amber Valley!

After a training visit from AVSSP staff in 2018, Allie has a led the team of Yaya, Sam and JG throughout 2019 and has seen excellent participation figures across all areas with a huge upturn in engagement in girls, one of the key initial aims of our project!

Close to 9000 young people have participated in activity as a result of the programme with almost 2000 of those girls – a real achievement in a predominantly Muslin country.

We would like to thank Cosy Direct for their continued funding support and most of all our talented, dedicated team of coaches who are constantly improving the lives of young people across The Gambia!