Playing For Success

Over 40 children have been showcasing some of the inspirational Olympic activities featured at the GreenZone Playing for Success Centre in Wythenshawe, which Jeremy Beeton, the Director General of the Government Olympic Executive described as “Exemplary”.

The activities included an Olympic sports fitness session led by professional coaches, Numeracy and Science work using the Get Set for the Winter Games resources and poetry based on the Olympic and Paralympic Value of Determination and concluded with a forum with Mr Beeton in which he answered pupils’ questions about the London 2012 Games.

The children also took part in a fun ‘Challenge the Athlete’ event in which top Sale Harriers athlete Andy Robertson was put through his paces on GreenZone’s SportWall, a feature which tests the reflexes and aims to engage both body and brain. GreenZone is partnered with Sale Harriers Athletics Club, who are celebrating their centenary year. An exhausted Andy was impressed by their determination to beat him.

The children then grasped the opportunity to quiz Mr Beeton on how the London Games could impact young people in Manchester. He said that they were already benefiting from what the Playing for Success initiative was trying to do and that they should “rise to the occasion”. He continued, “If we could find a way to replicate this initiative throughout the whole country and get hundreds of thousands of people like you interested in sport, interested in culture, interested in learning, trying to improve yourself- why not? That’s a great challenge.. set yourself some goals, just go and do it!”

The students, from The Willows Primary, St Anthony’s RC Primary and Manchester Health Academy, are currently participating in a 10-week Playing for Success after school programme which aims to use sport and computer technology to help raise children’s confidence and aspirations so that they are motivated to learn and achieve their full potential.

Greenzone is committed to maximising the educational benefits and sporting opportunities which the London 2012 Games provides for young people by participating in a range of learning opportunities, accessed through Get Set, the official London 2012 education programme. To recognise this, Greenzone recently become the first Playing for Success Centre to become a member of the Get Set network and receive the right to use the London 2012 Education Logo.

GreenZone Centre Manager Andy Jordan hopes that the occasion would have a lasting impact. “Having Jeremy Beeton here to see children at a Playing for Success Centre engaged in such a wide variety of Olympic related activities was great. But to deliver a lasting national Olympic legacy for young people we have to work together to help children to connect at every level – to make the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Values come alive”.