Hundreds of students from scores of schools across the Humber region have taken place in a series of Virtual School Games challenges across the summer term. The challenges were designed to keep the region’s kids physically and mentally active during lockdown.
Active Humber, a charity that works to improve wellbeing through physical activity, coordinated the events that covered a range of activities including; a Dance Cha, Cha, Challenge, Tennis, Pentathlon and Cricket. The challenges were supported by a team of local School Games Organisers.
To keep the events accessible to all the activities were especially designed to use equipment everyone would have at home; from a rolled-up pair of socks and a frying pan for tennis, to a simple standing space to jump! Students recorded their scores online and winners were awarded medals and certificates in the post.
While mainstream sport waited on the side-lines and school sports days were forced to cancel the bi-weekly organised challenges meant that locally kids were kept busy and active.
The challenges were open to primary, secondary, and special schools with entries from kids age five right through to 15. Huntcliff School from North Lincs also won a special prize for having the most entries per school for the final challenge.
Jo McDonald, Schools Games Development Manager at Active Humber said; “We've seen some super talent and some new ‘Personal Bests’ throughout this unprecedented period of sport and are most proud to see the achievements of our Humber students as they have soldiered on to stay motivated and stay active at home over the summer.”
David Gent, CEO at Active Humber went on to say; “It’s been fantastic to see how as an organisation we’ve been able to diversify during these times. Usually we’d be delivering events on the ground and moving everything virtually has been a testament to how adaptable kids can be. Using physical activity to respond to change in a positive way has been encouraging to see!”
“We hope that now the school term has officially ended that students continue to keep up the good work over the summer. We look forward to being able to work towards keeping the region's children mentally and physically active as they return to the classroom and playground in September.”
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Discover more about the Virtual School Games challenges on our School Sport pages.
