Children & Young People Newsletter January 2025
Primary PE & Physical Activity Conference - Bookings Open

The 2025 Primary PE & Physical Activity Conference, organised by Active Kent & Medway is taking place on Wednesday 26 March, 9:00am – 3:30pm at Kent Event Centre, Detling.
Bookings are now open for this face-to-face conference. The event provides a chance for primary school teachers, sports deliverers and activity providers across Kent and Medway to hear from leading experts and take away ideas to implement in schools. Schools can use their Primary PE Premium to pay for their space as well as the cost of teaching cover.
Follow this link for full conference details and to book your place
Active Lives - latest figures

The latest results from Sport England’s Active Lives Children and Young People Survey, which covers the 2023-24 academic year, shows that activity levels for children and young people across England have been maintained and remained stable.
However, there are still 52.3% of children and young people in England who are not active enough and 49% in Kent and Medway. The research found that inequalities still remain. Activity levels are lowest for those in school years 3 and 4; those from less affluent families and those from Black, Asian and Other Ethnicities are least likely to be active; and children who were in nursery when Covid hit are less likely to have positive attitudes towards activity and a lower sense of opportunity.
Youth Sport Trust Inclusion Week

Youth Sport Trust’s fourth Inclusion Live takes place this week, between Monday 27 January and Friday 31 January 2025. Each day they are hosting a free online session which gives access to SEND inclusion content for all practitioners.
The programme, funded by the Department of Education, aims to improve the quality of schools’ physical education and school sport provision for SEND pupils working with PE leads, teachers, SENDCos and teaching assistants.
Follow this link to Inclusion Live and register for the online sessions
Mental Health Support & Resources

Children’s Mental Health Week
Children’s Mental Health Week 2025 will take place from 3 – 9 February 2025.
The theme for 2025 is Know Yourself, Grow Yourself with the aim to equip and empower children and young people to embrace self-awareness and explore what it means to them.
Place2Be has joined forces with Here4You, and supported by The Walt Disney Company, they have produced a number of free resources for schools, clubs and families to get involved across the week.

NEW Mental Health Support pages
Active Kent & Medway is committed to improving the mental wellbeing of young people while also supporting partners to access mental health services, resources and training.
Our new mental health support pages include a range of support, training and resources plus research on the importance of young people being physically active for positive mental wellbeing. We highly recommend taking a look at the impact of the mental health pilot projects that have taken place in a number of secondary schools across Kent.

FREE Youth Mental Health Awareness Course
In partnership with Tommy Crush Foundation, a FREE evening workshop on Becoming Youth Mental Health Aware on Thursday 27 Mar 2025, 19:00 – 21:30.
The online course covers some of the common mental health issues affecting young people and offers you the skills to work more effectively with young people living with mental health issues. The training is being offered free of charge thanks to funding secured by The Tommy Crush Foundation.
National Campaigns for Schools

England Football #LetGirlsPlay
Schools are invited to join England Football’s nationwide event on 7 March 2025 for the Biggest Ever Football Session. A fun, empowering day that champions equality for girls in schools. The aim is to inspire the next generation and get as many girls as possible all playing football on the same day!
Access free session ideas and a marketing toolkit to get everyone excited for the day.

Green Football’s Great Save
A campaign from 11 March – 2 April 2025, unleashing the power of football to tackle climate change and all schools are invited to take part.
With free, ready-to-use classroom toolkits and resources, Green Football’s Great Save makes it easy for teachers to bring climate topics into the classroom in fun, interactive ways. The Great Save, spotlights how fans, clubs, and leagues can help prevent millions of tonnes of sportswear from ending up in landfills each year. From donating and swapping to selling, schools will have plenty of ways to get involved—and some fantastic prizes to win!

Always’ #EndPeriodPoverty
The national campaign from Always #EndPeriodPoverty, started in March 2018 and has donated nearly 32 million period products to schools and youth groups.
In Kind Direct is Always’ charitable partner and they distribute quality consumer products, donated by some of the UK’s best known manufacturers, retailers and brands, to charitable organisations – including charities, community groups, foodbanks and schools – who join their network.
Kent FANS Scheme

Do you know a young person in your school, club or community who is a talented sports person?
They could join FANS (Free Access for National Sports People), the county-wide scheme providing support to the leading sports performers of all ages, offering free, off-peak access to a number of sports facilities for personal training and development.
“FANS has supported me for many years. From when I was competing at county level, to now being a Paralympian.” Callie-Ann Warrington, Paralympian
Other News & Announcements
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