England Lacrosse is delighted to support the Youth Sport Trust’s Active Summer Challenge which aims to encourage as many children and young people as possible to remain active over the summer.
The Active Summer Challenge sets children and young people a series of challenges (one challenge per week), each related to exciting moments of sport that are taking place through the summer.
The challenges are fully inclusive from a socio-economic background perspective, and also easily adjusted for pupils with SEND. A core part of the challenge is that children will set their own pledge and add in how many minutes they were physically active for each day.
Research has found that one in four year six pupils are obese with 2.4 million young people active for less than 30 minutes per day while 53% of young people believe their social wellbeing has suffered since the Covid pandemic.
The Active Summer Challenge aims to get some of these children and young people moving as well as celebrate the fantastic sports events happening in July and August, from the UEFA’s Women’s EURO 2022 to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
The Challenge will help children be active every day by setting their own pledge and taking part in the six weekly challenges.
There are resources for teachers to help launch this challenge in schools, fun activity cards for children and links to some lots of amazing content from sport organisations. You’ll find everything you need on the dedicated website HERE.
How do you set the activity pledge?
The aim should be to reach the Chief Medical Officer's guidelines for physical activity. This is 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous activity or a minimum of 20 minutes a day for children with a disability. You can build up to 60 or 20 minutes across the day – it doesn’t need to be in one burst.
Choose an activity – or different activities – that are enjoyable. Having fun is a key motivator for children, so supporting them to plan a fun activity, perhaps linking up with friends and family, or something you could do alongside them, would help keep them engaged.
The pledge can be simple – it might be participating in the Daily Mile, playing their favourite sport, walking to and playing in their local park with friends, doing a set number or minutes of an action like star jumps, doing all the 10 minute Summer Shake Up activities in the holidays, or choosing videos to complete from the Active Recovery Hub.
Use the pledge tracker to write down the pledge and record what activity takes place every day. There’s a certificate available for teachers to celebrate children’s achievements as they return to school in September.
Alongside their pledge, six weekly activity cards with a challenge focused on a sport or activity have been created; these are fun and inclusive with all the information provided on each page for each week.
For further inspiration, you can use the active recovery hub to find activities suitable for individual needs across a wide range of sports.
Once children have completed their pledge and the challenges, there is a certificate for you to keep and celebrate all your good work.
And if you want to make your Active Summer Challenge lacrosse-specific, we’ve created our own handy challenge for you to try!