ITS ALL ABOUT ACTION SPORTS IN ISLINGTON.

Angel Islington Online have put a nice little article together on the ASIS project with quite a few pictures up, too.

Islington Gazette

Islington Gazette are running their current issue with an article entitled ‘PE lessons and how to skateboard’. they also have an online version up. check it out here.

Samuel Rhodes School

Looking after small classes makes for really fun sessions. For Samuel Rhodes we had a class of 9, and with extra staff we could almost devote 100% of our time to a pair.

Sam has really taken to this. She dives straight in and gets everyone up and balancing…

…which really helps when it comes to pushing around on the skateboards.

So, the first week of taster sessions for the Action Sports in Schools project is over.

It’s been pretty hectic, and we have learnt just as much from the kids as they have from us. We’ve managed to engage pretty much everyone we’ve come across, including some of the teachers who got stuck in and grabbed their boards for a session too.

From being unable to stand on the Indo board at the start of the session, you can actually see the confidence growing as their partner ’spots’ them and they help each other to find their core balance. Within minutes they are up and away and controlling the board.

By the end of the session, they have taken the balance found on the indo boards and are pushing across the hall on skateboards. Something which 30 minutes earlier they would not have been comfortable jumping onto, especially with all their mates around.

The patnering of kids with them helping each other seems to be really working in showing one of the most basic aspects of Action Sports. That is the spirit of community and not competition, within the sport.
Roll on next week…

KAOS Brands In Action and CEA@Islington to introduce action sports to school curriculum.

The world’s first ever school P.E. based action sports programme is about to launch in Islington, London. Aimed at Key Stage 4 students aged between 14 and 16 years, the programme will be introduced initially to 10 schools. With success, the programme hopes to be extended and early indication is that there is strong demand.

The Action Sports In Schools Programme has been funded by the DfES and was devised to help address the low level of physical activity amongst teenagers by providing new and emerging sporting options. Feedback from the schools’ community was that more relevant youth sports, including board sports such as skateboarding as well as BMX and other bike sports, were necessary to increase physical activity and improve P.E. class attendance.

This innovative grass-roots programme aims to encourage kids who are usually disinterested in traditional sports to look at other activities which they may not have tried and feel are inaccessible to them.

CEA@Islington has teamed up with Action Sports marketing specialists KAOS Brands In Action to take a fresh look at physical education within the borough.

KAOS Brands In Action Managing Director Paul Knipe said ‘We are proud to be involved and credibly lead this project. Opening the door to action sports within PE classes will mean a whole new batch of kids being more active and interested in the action sports scene’.

Manager of CEA@Islington’s School Sports Coordinator Programme, Sarah Fretwell said ‘The overall goal of this initiative is not only to increase fitness and improve attendance but to introduce sports which rely on community and not competitiveness. Action sports offer an alternative to traditional sports where kids are encouraged to express themselves as individuals and advance at their own pace. We think for a lot of kids, this could be a good access route into sports and physical activity.’

Other action sports lifestyle elements will form part of the overall programme including film and photography, fashion and music, again aimed at including as many kids as possible.