Featured – Amber Valley School Sport Partnership CIO

In Camps

AVSSP Summer Holiday Camps – What you need to know!

01/12/2023

In Summer 2024 AVSSP are able to offer our extremely popular Holiday Camps once again!

Offering hundreds of children each day the chance to take part in sports, games, arts & craft, swimming and much more our camps are extremely popular and offer a great way to have fun, make new friends and be physically active!

When: Wednesday 24th July – Friday 16th August 8:30am-3pm (excl. weekends)

Where: Ripley Leisure Centre & William Gregg VC Leisure Centre Heanor & Alfreton Leisure Centre

Who: Children aged 5 -11 years of age

How to book: Click here to access our booking page.

Details: Places are charged at £20 per day, per child

What do I need to bring: A packed lunch and drink (lunch provided for funded places), swimming kit, sports clothing and footwear

What you need to know

AVSSP holiday camps will run from 08:30am to 15:00pm Mon-Fri, first day being Wed 24th July. Our activities include various sports, games and physical activities as well as arts & crafts, games and enrichment activities.

Eligibility – Holiday camps are open to children aged 5 – 11. Places are limited and children cannot attend without a pre-booked place.

Clothing – Please be aware that all of our camps are sports based and your child will be partaking in activities that require them to be physically active. They should come to us dressed in appropriate sporting attire that they will be comfortable in for the day. Footwear such as trainers need to be worn as there may be both indoor and outdoor activities. If you child is not in appropriate clothing then they may not be able to participate in certain activities.

Swimming Kit- You the customer are responsible for ensuring that if your child is attending a venue in which we offer a swimming session (Alfreton LC, Heanor LC and Ripley LC) then your child will require appropriate swim wear and their own towel. This must be brought in a named bag. If your child comes without a swimming kit they will not be allowed to participate in this session. If your child cannot swim or doesn’t want too every effort will be made to allow them to join in a different activity however this may not always be possible.

Timetables – throughout each day children will take part in a range of sports, games, arts & crafts as well as swimming, gymnastics, inflatables and even bowling at selected sites. Timetables are not available to parents in advance due to the changeable nature of leisure centre facility access and staff preferences.

Participation – if on occasion your child does not want to take part in the timetabled activity they will be encouraged but not forced to take part. If possible they will be allowed to join a different activity, however this may not always be possible.

Packed Lunch – Children will need to bring a pack lunch with them and a drink (lunch provided for funded places), we are able to refill water bottles if needed.. Please ensure you do not pack any nuts. 🥜

Medical needs, Allergies & Medication – if your child has any allergies or medical needs you MUST make us aware of them through your booking form. You may be asked additional questions either in advance or on arrival about how we can support your child. Please note AVSSP WILL NOT administer medication or make any medical assessment of your child – we are able to store medication for those children able to self-administer.

Illness & COVID-19 – if your child is presented symptoms of COVID-19 or is generally unwell please do not send them to camp to avoid spreading any illnesses onto children and staff. Please inform staff via holidaycamps@avssp.co.uk. Full refunds will be offered where applicable if attendees act in accordance with our cancellation policy below.

Partner Sites – at all sites we may utilise partner facilities in short walking distance of the advertised centre. Details of these venues and appropriate risk assessments can be found here.

Lost Property – Each venue will keep a lost property box throughout the school holiday period – any items not collected by the end of the period will be donated to local charity shops.

Signing In/Out – A parent/carer/guardian must be present at drop off and collection. An adult will need to sign in with a member of staff to ensure the correct details are on register with us, upon collection our staff member will check to ensure each child is collected by the adult on register*.
*If a child is to be collected by someone else this information must be made known to us upon signing in.

Leaving early/Arriving late – you are welcome to arrive later than 9am or collect earlier than 3pm should you wish. Please inform staff in advance or on arrival so we know to expect you. Please note partial refunds will not be available in this scenario.

Behaviour – AVSSP have a responsibility to ensure all children are safe and able to enjoy their day. If a child is breaching our expected code of behaviour parents/guardians will be contacted and in some rare instances will be expected to collect children early and in even rarer instances may have future bookings cancelled.

Cancellations – All cancellations must be made directly in writing to holidycamps@avssp.co.uk in advance notice of 48 hours prior to the start date of your booking. Should you need to cancel a booking with us after this point please call 07555 697591 and speak to a member of our team.

No Show Policy – Please be aware that you have an obligation to notify us of any changes or cancellations to your bookings with us. We would appreciate as much notice of these as possible to enable us to complete your requests promptly

❌🥜Please ensure you do not send your child with any nuts. 🥜❌

Venues

Alfreton Leisure Centre, Church Street, Alfreton, DE55 7BD

Registration: Bowls Hall Entrance (located at bottom of leisure centre car park)

Collection: Bowls Hall Entrance (located at bottom of leisure centre car park)

Ripley Leisure Centre, Derby Road, Ripley, DE5 3HR

Registration: Main Leisure Centre entrance

Collection: Main Leisure Centre entrance – exit via fire exit

William Gregg VC Leisure Centre, Hand’s Road, Heanor DE75 7HA

Registration: Main Leisure Centre entrance – sign in at the Sportshall (downstairs)

Collection: Main Leisure Centre entrance – collect from the Sportshall (downstairs) exit via fire exit into car park.

Thank you 💙

In News

Junior Sports Leadership with AVSSP!

04/10/2023

The first Friday back after half term saw AVSSP host their annual Junior Sports Leaders (JSL) conference at Ripley Leisure Centre. The day consisted of two sessions, one in the morning for Yr 5/6 and one in the afternoon for Yr 2.

The idea of the conference is to introduce children to the role of a JSL and give them tips and ideas on how to become a successful leader.

Throughout the day children took part in 6 different activities that were designed to up-skill them in different areas of the role. For example, one activity was based on games without equipment. Some schools don’t always have lots of playtime equipment available or, the leaders don’t always have time to get equipment out. Therefore we wanted to introduce games and ideas for children to use when they are flying solo. Such as Stuck in The Mud, a classic tag game that can be played by anyone and everyone in the playground.

Another activity was set up to give JSLs the chance to practice delivering their own games. Leaders are given a resource pack at the start of their JSL training, this pack is their cheat sheet to being a leader. It has a number of different game ideas in it and explains step by step how to deliver and play the game. Children had the chance to read over one of the games in the resource and then practice delivering it to the other members of their group. With the help of AVSSP staff, JSLs were able to understand and execute an active playtime game with their fellow leaders.

The Junior Sport Leaders programme is a fantastic chance for the eldest children in school to become an active role model to younger students. Their job is to increase participation in physical activity throughout the school day whilst also assisting with equipment pack up, PE lessons, sports day and much more.

If you haven’t yet had Junior Sports Leaders training in your school and you are interested in being a part of it contact anna@avssp.co.uk

Thank you to everyone who joined us at the conference, we hope you had a fun day

In Uncategorised

Children’s Mental Health Week – My Voice Matters

12/07/2023

This week is Children’s Mental Health Week with the focus being My Voice Matters. My Voice Matters is about empowering children and young people by providing them with the tools they need to express themselves. When we feel empowered, there’s a positive impact on our wellbeing. Children who feel that their voices are heard and can make a difference, have a greater sense of community and better self-esteem.

To get involved in this year Children’s Mental Health Week, head over to Place2Be’s Website to download helpful classroom resources that can be used to get children talking and thinking about how they can best express themselves and what they need to feel empowered!

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 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

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!

In Primary

Over 300 players descend on Belper RFC for Amber Valley TAG events!

28/10/2019

Two evenings of competition saw well over 300 students and 35 teams take part in this year’s TAG Rugby events at Belper Rugby Club.

In three fast paced, high quality competitions teams were tasked with showing their skills in a series of TAG games and skill station activities all aimed at developing rugby skills and inspiring students to participate.

The Development event saw 16 teams take part with incredible progress shown by all teams, Thursday’s Elite event saw seasoned rugby players battle it out to claim the overall trophy.

While our 5 a side Girls only event saw a mix of those new to the sport and many who were passionate about playing rugby compete and learn in a friendly, sporting atmosphere

Congratulations to all teams and students who took part!

If you loved playing Rugby at the recent TAG events and would like to know more about joining Belper Rugby club simply click the link below, open training is on Sunday’s at 10am

http://www.belperrugbyclub.co.uk

In Primary

Three weeks of Sportshall Athletics events see’s us hit the 1,000 student mark!

18/10/2019

Three weeks of competition, 10 events, 99 teams across three venues has seen over 1,000 Amber Valley pupils compete in this year’s Sportshall Athletics series!

Students from KS1 & 2 put their hard work into practice by tackling field and track events all battling to score points for their respective teams – we’ve seen some of the closest races and highest field event score ever!

Each and every team showcased outstanding teamwork and determination with a terrific atmosphere created by the hundreds of spectators present!

There were wins for St Johns Belper, Codnor Primary, Curzon Primary, William Gilbert, Riddings Infant and Loscoe Primary with each team run close in some amazing competitions

Huge congratulations to every school who took part and a big thank you to staff who supported their attendance!

In Gymnastics

AVSSP & Amber Valley Gymnastics Academy team up for Primary Gymnastics Festival!

14/10/2019

AVSSP’s first ever Self Belief festival saw over 100 students experience what it’s like to be a club gymnast with Amber Valley Gymnastics Academy.

Seven specialist Gymnastics coaches put the students through their paces making use of top class facilities and equipment! Aspiring gymnasts were able to use the beams, bars, tumble track, rebound and more taking part in fun, energetic activities alongside the coaches!

The festival was all themed around Self Belief with awards on offer throughout with each coach tasked with selecting Self Belief Champions from their group

Our work with the club also stretched to talent identification with those students showing promise in Gymnastics invited to take part in specialised competition practices with the club

All students showed a fantastic attitude to try new things and embodied Self Belief throughout the session before leaving with a certificate each and an invite to take part in a FREE taster session with Amber Valley Gymnastics Academy

Congratulations to each and every student who took part and thank you to AVGA and their coaches for their hard work!

To find out more on how to become a member of Amber Valley Gymnastics Academy and work with their excellent team of coaches click here