N E W S L E T T E R - Welwyn Hatfield Sport and Physical ... Olympic... · Newsletter – November 2013 The Hertfordshire Olympic & Paralympic Legacy Partnership Page 4 run through

N E W S L E T T E R The Hertfordshire Olympic & Paralympic Legacy Partnership

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With the British Virgin Islands delegation in Beijing

It will be 10 years ago in the run up to Glasgow 2014 when I first became involved in the Olympic and Paralympic bid and then the delivery of London 2012. Firstly, on my own part-time, then full time before we created the Team whose focus was on supporting the delivery of the Games and then seeking to put in place a Legacy. For me an amazing journey and a total career change from Manager to Ambassador and then Co-ordinator for the County. It took me to Olympia, Athens, Beijing, St Lucia, Delhi and Copenhagen and then as GamesMaker and Torchbearer in London. The scepticism which grew before the Games evaporated in the celebration of what many have seen as the best Games ever. And given that 796BC is the recognised first Games that is no mean feat. But delivering a Legacy is not easy once the Flame moved on and now is in Russia for Sochi 2014. However the new Legacy Board can be proud of keeping the Flame alive in Hertfordshire and is now handing on to a new broadly based successor group. Its achievements can be seen in its last report due in December 2013 and those will continue as a new extended Partnership looks to the future. For me as my role ceases it will be new challenges and if you need any help then I am available. Just go to my website at www.johnrfuller.co.uk or email at [email protected]. I may not be free but I can assure you I am good value!

Achievements of the Hertfordshire Olympic & Paralympic Legacy Partnership

Beijing 2008

With BVI students at the Lee Valley White Water Centre

An early pre-games visit by HRFW partners

London 2012 Torchbearer

Newsletter – November 2013 The Hertfordshire Olympic & Paralympic Legacy Partnership

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Watford primary school children were invited to a day of activities and healthy competition designed to deliver the sporting legacy promised by London 2012. Over 600 youngsters descended on Watford Borough Council’s Watford Leisure Centre – Woodside on Thursday 3 October to participate in the day organised by Fit for Sport, the UK’s leading provider of children’s activities. Fit for Sport and Everyone Active are working in partnership to deliver a legacy of sport, competition and community engagement to children aged 7-11. Their joint pledge to have ‘500,000 under 16s engaged and active’ will be achieved through a host of Legacy Games days for primary school children across the country and the Watford Legacy Games is the second event in the series.

The children had a packed day. After a motivational mass warm-up with GB Olympic swimmer and sports personality Steve Parry, they divided into small groups to enjoy a variety of sports, activities and team building challenges to inspire them to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Elected Mayor of Watford Dorothy Thornhill lent her support and joined the fun and games during the day. She said “I’m delighted that the Legacy Games came to Watford. Aside from the fun physical activity, the Legacy Games are a great way for local youngsters to get involved in a community activity with their friends and children from other schools. I enjoyed seeing them all in action on the day.”

Watford Schools invited to Legacy Games


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Representatives of more than 140 of Hertfordshire’s Primary Schools recently descended on the University of Hertfordshire for a 2012 Legacy Conference. A mixture of Head Teachers, PE Subject Leaders, Governors and School Games Organisers enjoyed inspirational keynote addresses from Baroness Sue Campbell, Chair of the Youth Sport Trust, and triple Paralympic gold medallist, Giles Long – who gave a poignant delivery outlining his own experiences, before his sporting hopes and aspirations were cruelly interrupted by cancer, when he was only 14.

Baroness Sue Campbell, highly influential in securing investment in school sport over the past decade, regaled those present with anecdotes of her early days as a Physical Education teacher, and how she had witnessed first hand the massive impact that high quality sport and physical education can have on the physical literacy and all round development of young people. Moreover she stressed it can play a major part in whole school improvements – reducing truancy, improving behaviour, enhancing attainment and developing the social, interpersonal and physical skills of primary school children. The primary school Sport Premium funding, recently announced by central government, brings with it significant responsibility for primary schools, and will, for the first time, form part of the Ofsted schools’ inspection process. Baroness Campbell urged Head Teachers to invest the available funds wisely; to develop subject leaders for physical education; to engage with the County and National School Games

Programme; and to embed sustainability for high quality sport and physical education in school programmes.

In bringing to a close a very informative, inspiring and enjoyable event, co-hosts, Grahame Bowles, Chairman of the Herts Sports Partnership, and Councillor Teresa Heritage, Chair of the Hertfordshire Olympic & Paralympic Legacy Partnership, pledged support for Hertfordshire’s 411 primary schools in the delivery of the Sport Premium and urged delegates to tap into the support available for this programme.

A Joint Legacy Conference for Primary Schools with Herts Sports Partnership and Herts is Ready for Winners


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Last year 172 millon working days were lost due to employee absence. This costs UK employers £13 billion. However, those individuals who keep active take 27% fewer days off sick. 2013 sees the launch of an exciting new national initiative designed to get your workforce moving and improve the health and wellbeing of your organisation.

As part of the 2012 legacy businesses in Hertfordshire are being invited to get involved with this new project, Herts Workplace Challenge. Free for all organisations to use, the Herts Workplace Challenge website has been designed to create an online community of businesses that want to promote physical activity and sport to their employees. Designed as a one stop shop, your members of staff can sign up to take part in an annual activity challenge which launches on 6 January 2014. How can the website benefit your organisation and staff? Your staff will be able to: log how much physical activity and

exercise they are doing on a daily basis (including active travel);

view how much CO2 they have saved through cycling or walking to work;

view and search countrywide leader boards of how fit they are in

comparison to their colleagues or people from other businesses; take part in local activity campaigns

run through the website; view up to date information on

physical activity news, events and competitions taking place in Hertfordshire;

enter teams into our Active Offices after work sports competitions.

The benefits of increasing physical activity levels amongst your workforce can be immediate. Having happy and healthy employees helps to increase morale, reduces absenteeism and staff turnover, improves productivity and leads to higher profits. There are easy and simple steps your business can take to promote the health and wellbeing of your employees and getting on board with the free Herts Workplace Challenge can do just that. For more information or an informal chat about this project please contact Joe Capon on 01707 281004 or email [email protected]

Keep the legacy alive – get your workforce moving!


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Sportivate The Sportivate programme is part of Sport England’s ‘Places People Play’ 2012 commitment to a mass participation legacy. The programme offers people aged 11-25 the chance to receive 6-8 weeks of coaching in the sport of their choice, delivered through the network of 49 County Sports Partnerships across England, working with a range of local partners. Sportivate targets those who are not currently participating in sport, or who are doing so for a very limited amount of time and supports them to continue playing sport in their community at the end of the programme. Sportivate is inclusive, targeting various low participation groups; young people who have a disability, and those from BME groups. The programme started in April 2011 and nationally aims to attract 300,000 participants aged 11-25 over a four year period. The intended outcome is that 120,000 participants will continue to play sport regularly as a direct result of their involvement with this initiative.

It is hoped that Sportivate will also contribute to wider outcomes including improving health, breaking down social and cultural barriers, attracting a range of additional partners, tackling obesity and improving skills development through participation and volunteering. As Sport England’s key partner for the roll out of this programme in Hertfordshire, the Herts Sports Partnership was successful in levering in £149,310 per annum, for four years. Herts Sports Partnership is tasked with ensuring that during the time of the project at least 5,599 participants attend at least 5 out of the 6 sessions on offer in each programme. The lead officer for this programme Shelley Woods is keen to provide information and to discuss the programme in particular areas of the county. Please contact her at [email protected].

Council for Voluntary Services for Broxbourne and East Herts ‘Creating Change’ Annual Conference and AGM 2013 Over 100 representatives of local community associations across Broxbourne and East Herts attended the Conference which was held on 14 October 2013. Those present were treated to an array of workshops and learning opportunities, supporting the use of social media with the charitable sector and the effective use of local community buildings. Another highlight was the first ‘speed funding’ event held in Hertfordshire which paired 24 local community groups and charities with funding organisations in a ‘speed dating’ environment with several positive outcomes. To see the transcript of the key note speaker, Kevin Curley CBE, talking about innovative ways of strengthening resources for the community sector in difficult economic times please click on http://www.cvsbeh.org.uk/.


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Emitremmus Deserever is Stevenage CTC’s cycle challenge from Stevenage to Saffron Walden and back on the day the clocks change – the end of British Summertime. Last year more than 500 entered. The first wave of “Emitremmus” riders, the early birds, set off from Costello’s Café at the Sailing Centre in Fairlands Valley Park by the Mayor of Stevenage, Councillor Jack Pickersgill, at 9.45am. The main start was in waves from 10am. The 101 kilometres (63 miles) route took the riders through Aston, Benington, Whempstead, Dane End, Nasty, Westmill, Aspenden, Buntingford, Hare Street, Brent Pelham, Clavering, Newport, Saffron Walden, Great Chishill, Barkway, Reed, Therfield, Sandon, Luffenhall, Weston and back to Stevenage.

Cycling with your local CTC – the National Cycling Charity – group is a great way to get fit and enjoy the local countryside in good company. Cycling is fun, it’s good for the environment and it’s also good for you. Remember CTC ride with each other not against each other. You can get more details by contacting Tina Walker (01438 235881), Alison Mills (07735 361343) or Jim Brown (01438 354505 / 0793 968 7509) or by emailing [email protected]

Follow the GBR Men’s White Water Rafting team at the 2013 World Rafting Championships 21-24 November in New Zealand

Website www.britishraftteam.co.uk Facebook www.facebook.com/gbrwwrt Competition website www.2013raftingworldsnz.com

Emitremmus Desrever Cycle Challenge - Sunday 27 October


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MATCH Project Migration is one of the biggest challenges for European societies and political systems and sport could have a core role in supporting the integration of migrants in european countries. The social value of sport is not always fully exploited. It is important to make the connection between sport associations and immigrants in their local communities because sport associations have enormous potential to contribute to social inclusion and integration of immigrants. The main purpose of this MATCH project is to raise awareness of key people in sport associations and governing bodies, to encourage accessibility of sport to immigrants, create opportunities for immigrants’ participation in sport events and activities, provide better understanding of immigrants and their disadvantaged position in a society, support the exchange and implementation of good practices, and promote learning of intercultural competencies.

The project encourages mutual exchange of practises and experiences between partners as well as the collection of best practice approaches in the field of integration of migrants through sport. CVS Broxbourne and East Herts has recently hosted a project meeting which took place in Ware between 30 September and 2 October. The conference led by an Austrian partner, included organisations from Italy, Croatia and Portugal. Overall 32 people participated in a very lively project meeting.

I attended the event on the last day with the Olympic Torch and gave a presentation on the London 2012 Legacy work focusing especially on the importance of partnership working and its challenges and rewards. They especially liked the Torch even though some language barriers may have diluted the legacy message! Chairman of the “Show Red Card to Racism Eastern European Association”


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Disability cycling sessions for groups and individuals in Welwyn Garden City, Herts Easy Riders are bicycles designed to bring therapeutic benefits of cycling to those with disabilities and special needs. They provide independent mobility, an improvement in physical and mental wellbeing and are also great fun! There are different styles of bikes to accommodate a wide range of disabilities, i.e., hand-crank bikes for those with restricted leg use, 3-wheel bikes for those with poor balance, 2-seater bikes and more. The benefits to participants can be enormous, providing exercise to help with weight gain, muscle wastage and poor circulation; fresh air to aid respiratory conditions; communication with individuals outside of their day to day environment and many others. For more details or to book please contact Stanborough Water Park, Welwyn Garden City, on 01707 379860.


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Disability Sport Support Scheme The Herts Disability Sports Forum for Young People is pleased to announce that its Disabililty Sport Support Scheme is now open to receive applications for funding. The scheme exits to help individuals with disabilities and organisations delivering disabled sport, to get involved in sport and physical activity in Hertfordshire. Funding for this programme has been made available from the Herts Olympic and Paralympic Legacy board, and as a result of our ongoing partnership arrangements with North Hertfordshire College, linked to coach education programmes. Organisations delivering sport, including sports clubs and schools, may apply for support of up to £500 in one application. Funding can support training and coaching courses; taster sessions; increasing the provision of extra-curricular activity; and sporting events. All applications must support the aim to increase participation among disabled people or to improve

the levels of performance of disabled sports people. For further information contact Shelley Woods at [email protected] Coaching Matters Coaching remains a central element of Herts Sports Partnership’s strategy for helping National Governing Bodies for sport to achieve their participation targets. There is compelling evidence to suggest that good coaching plays an important role in both the successful recruitment and retention of participants in sport and physical activity.

Over recent years coach development and education has become a major strand of the work of the Herts Sports Partnership. Hertfordshire’s CoachMark scheme, which is based on nationally agreed minimum standards for coaches, was introduced with the backing of Hertfordshire County Council nearly 3 years ago. Plans for the 2014 Herts Coach Education Week – the biggest event of its kind in the UK – are well advanced and further details of this will be available on the website www.coachinherts.org.uk.


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Mascot Clyde’s journey begins A special Mascot Project is in place to link to Glasgow 2014. As you will see from the photo, Wenlock and Mandeville of London 2012 fame are handing on the baton to Clyde, the Mascot for Glasgow 2014, as he begins his journey from Hertfordshire to the British Virgin Islands. He will visit schools there before returning with their Team and then visiting participating schools in the county. You can watch Clyde’s relay journey now on Twitter and then next year if you make sure you keep connected to the new Partnership.

Launch of the Mascot Project at

Russell School on 11 November 2013

Celebrations in the British Virgin Islands as they await the arrival of Clyde


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Your memories from 2012 In the September Newsletter we asked for your memories of the fantastic time last year. Here are some that we have received.

Torchbearers that ran through Hemel Hempstead with the Mayor

Olympic Torch at Hatfield House

Paralympic Torch in St Albans


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What the future holds

On 13 December 2013 the Legacy Board will pass the baton to a new more broadly based group which, led initially by Hertfordshire County Council, will be seeking to continue the legacy role. There will be new contact details from the year end and in the last communication after that meeting from the Legacy Board we will let you know how you can continue to be kept informed of the work and how if you wish you can be involved.

The Olympic Village at Weymouth Olympic Torch riding the waves at Lee Valley White Water Centre

Inside the Olympic Stadium

N E W S L E T T E R - Welwyn Hatfield Sport and Physical ... Olympic... · Newsletter – November 2013 The Hertfordshire Olympic & Paralympic Legacy Partnership Page 4 run through

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