Children & Young People Newsletter May 2025
Headlines 2024-25
We are delighted to share a summary of our work in 2024-25, supporting children and young people to have positive experiences in sport and physical activity.
Active Kent & Medway is committed to influencing and supporting schools and community groups to focus on physical literacy and empowering youth voice to engage the less active children and young people, leading to a lifelong habit of physical activity.
Our 2024-25 headlines capture the impact of our programmes plus feedback from local partners. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has worked with us in the last year, who support our mission of improving lives through sport and physical activity.
Primary PE Conference 2025 Highlights
On Wednesday 26 March 2025, Active Kent & Medway welcomed over 170 attendees to its annual Primary PE and Physical Activity Conference at the Kent Event Centre, Detling. The day buzzed with energy as educators, sports deliverers, and activity providers gathered to learn from experts, network and share innovative ideas to help promote physical activity within schools. The following short film captures some of the day’s highlights.
National Campaigns for Primary Age
National School Sports Week
Taking place Monday 16 June – Sunday 22 June 2025, National School Sports Week is back, powered by Sports Direct x Under Armour.
This year marks 30 years of the Youth Sport Trust, and they’re making it bigger than ever by calling on schools, families and organisations to get involved to host the UK’s biggest ever Sports Day, and champion 60 minutes* of PE, sport and play every day to help all young people be Always Active. (*20 minutes for young people with a disability or young people with SEND). Sign up now to access free resources, exclusive activity packs and challenges. Plus, by signing up you’ll be in with a chance to WIN exciting prizes for you school, family or organisation.
Follow this link to get involved in National School Sports Week
Monster Kickabout is back!
Monster Kickabout is a nationwide school football initiative from Sports Direct and Nike, created to encourage more kids to take up football, with free resources and football equipment provided to help teachers provide football fun.
Help put the ALL back into football. The free resources have been provided for schools to enrich the lives of their students using football to encourage physical activity. There are also resources designed specifically to introduce girls to football.
Follow this link to get involved in Monster Kickabout
Active Skills for Life
British Triathlon’s Active Skills for Life is all about getting children aged 7-14 having fun and learning essential life skills with swim, bike, run at the heart of it. With triathlon-inspired games and challenges, they will develop teamwork, resilience, water safety, and much more – all while staying active and engaged. Perfect for schools, clubs, holiday camps, community groups and leisure operators, it’s a fun, friendly way to help children grow and thrive.
The programme offers free curriculum and extra-curricular resources, prize draws for athlete visits, exclusive competitions, new school games formats, termly newsletters and more. Sign up for FREE today.
Follow this link to get involved in Active Skills for Life
Summer Reading Challenge
Looking for FREE summer fun that helps children’s love of reading grow, with books that inspire them to get active? Each year Kent Libraries delivers the Summer Reading Challenge, offering children aged 4 to 11 a summer full of stories, events, and activities, all for free.
Children can read anything they like to take part and get rewards, including books that can help to get kids moving. Whether it’s fact books for nature explorers or rainy day reads packed with inspiration for indoor fun, there’s something for everyone. The best part? All these fantastic reads are available to reserve and borrow for FREE at Kent Libraries.
Follow this link to get involved in the Summer Reading Challenge
Studio You and Nike for Teenagers
Studio You, a digital exercise platform for teenage girls across England, has teamed up with Nike to launch a series of new video content, teaching a variety of non-competitive activities to ensure no girl is left behind in PE.
Powered by our This Girl Can campaign and funded by The National Lottery, Studio You is a first-of-its-kind digital platform for PE. It’s packed with over 100 video lessons, plus tips and guidance to inject fun into PE across a range of activities such as dance, yoga and fitness. Teachers can register for a free account on Studio You to access the hub.
Supporting Young People's Mental Health
Exam season is upon us, and we know that this can be a particularly stressful time for young people. Sport England’s Active Lives Children’s and Young people survey shows that there is a positive association between being active and improved mental wellbeing. Children who are more active are happier, have reduced depressive symptoms and behavioural and emotional difficulties (Booth et al, 2023).
Active Kent & Medway has worked with a number of schools who were keen to deliver mental wellbeing pilot projects using physical activity sessions to support young people’s mental health. Find out more and learn how to encourage young people to keep active to support their mental health.
Follow this link to find out more
In 2024, Sport England published a new report that shows there is “strong and consistent evidence that sport and physical activity interventions had positive effects on the diagnosed mental health problems of children and young people”.
They commissioned Edge Hill University to collate and review existing research from across 143 studies to assess the strength of evidence.
A suite of infographics is now available to support the dissemination of the findings.
Follow this link to view the infographics
To stay up to date with the latest research on children and young people’s health, you can sign up to the School Health Pulse newsletter or contact Dr Mairead Ryan at hello@schoolhealthpulse.com.
Funding Opportunities
Active Kent & Medway Small Grant
Active Kent & Medway can provide funding of up to £500 towards equipment, coaching fees, venue hire or marketing for projects that encourage and increase participation in physical activity for Kent or Medway residents.
Funding could be available for projects such as new programmes, festivals, events, launches or celebrations of activity, that re-engage with previous audiences and/or encourages those new to activity to continue to be active. Please check the grant conditions and criteria.
Better Mental Health and Wellbeing Community Fund
Launched to coincide with this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, the 2025 Kent and Medway Better Mental Health and Wellbeing Community Fund is now open, offering grants from £500 to £10,000.
The fund is run by the Kent and Medway Suicide Prevention Programme, a partnership of NHS organisations, Kent County Council (KCC) and Medway Council.
Designed to test innovative ideas, develop evidence of what works and support grassroots projects to continue to support their communities. Deadline for applications is 9 June 2025.
Other News
Contact Us
We’d love to hear from you
If there’s anything in this newsletter you’d like to discuss, then just get in touch and one of our team members will get back to you as soon as possible. Please email: activekent@kent.gov.uk
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