National School Sport Week launches

As excitement builds ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio this summer, more than 4,500 schools have registered for National School Sport Week 2016, which offers the potential to inspire up to 1.8 million young people.

Double Paralympic champion Hannah Cockroft and former Pussycat Doll Kimberly Wyatt, who are both Youth Sport Trust Ambassadors, offically launched the start of the week at a school in London. They took part in a specially designed dance session led by Kimberly, before joining in a series of Paralympic challenges linked to the sports of boccia, goalball, sitting volleyball and athletics.

The Paralympic sports undertaken by Hannah and Kimberly form part of the Sainsbury’s Active Kids Paralympic Challenge - a partnership between Sainsbury’s, the Youth Sport Trust and ParalympicsGB, which provides free inclusive sports equipment for schools. Every school that signs up for National School Sport Week will also have the opportunity to benefit from the free equipment and resources from this challenge.

On Tuesday, Rugby 7’s player and Youth Sport Trust Athlete Mentor Rob Vickerman will kick start the Bramley School ‘Olympics’ event with students from nine schools from the Bramley area of Leeds. 

On Wednesday, Paralympic athlete Sam Ruddock, who was recently a GB team captain at IPC Athletics European Championships in Italy, will be in Birmingham to join students at Marlborough Junior School to help celebrate National School Sport Week.

The English Federation of Disability Sport is working in partnership so more young disabled people can enjoy sport and physical activity. Under the banner of Sainsbury’s Active Kids for All, we provide training for schools and community groups to develop inclusive PE, sport and physical activity for disabled people. Find out more about Sainsbury's Active Kids for All Inclusive PE training here. 

Follow all the National School Sport Week activity on Twitter and share how you are supporting the week using #NSSW.