England Athletics is awarded the 'School Games NGB of the Year' Award 2020 by the Youth Sport Trust

The Youth Sport Trust 'School Games National Governing Body (NGB) of the Year' Award celebrates and recognises England Athletics as an organisation that has responded to the challenges that the year has given schools and the School Games network; and the need to provide appropriate competition and leadership opportunities for young people - in turn creating a greater demand/uptake for the sport.

Commenting on this award, Chris Jones, Chief Executive of England Athletics said: “To be acknowledged with an award at any time is humbling but particularly during this year, I couldn’t be prouder to receive this award on behalf of everyone involved with England Athletics. The award is in recognition of the amount of work undertaken by the team in producing engaging, timely and highly relevant digital content to engage young people and providers in athletic activities during the most challenging period when all society was adjusting to life at home with the additional responsibilities for many of home schooling.

“We should also pay tribute to the efforts of those individuals who were instrumental in delivering the resources and digital content across the country because without the parents, carers, coaches, teachers and young volunteers then the content would have laid dormant. They brought the content to life and we are extremely grateful for their efforts during what was an extremely difficult, uncertain and unprecedented period for all. I would particularly like to thank Jenny Meadows for your enthusiastic support and inspirational home activity videos.

“To be a finalist alongside other great submissions from excellent organisations such as the cricket charity Chance to Shine and The Golf Foundation, is in itself satisfying, but to win is a deserved accolade for all those involved across England who care deeply for the sport of athletics and importantly, perhaps more so than ever before, in helping young children to remain physically active and to develop a sporting habit for life. We are also mindful that more than half a million young people take part in athletics competitions each year as part of the School Games movement and again, we are thankful to all those schools, clubs, officials and volunteers who give their time as part of this wonderful movement.”

Summary of the England Athletics activity to receive the award

• For primary aged children this included over 20 activity videos (viewed by over 40,000 people) to help families to stay active at home. A Home School Pack was created which included Cross Curricular lessons, fun activities and a ‘Design a Medal for our frontline heroes’ competition. Thousands of Home School Packs have been downloaded across the country and hundreds of children entered the competition.
• For Secondary aged children, working with their School Sports Ambassador, we created @home Challenges which were viewed by over 27,000 people with our Young Leaders workshop moving from face to face training to online with massive success.
• For Teachers and Coaches, all their Primary and Secondary Teaching Training courses became a virtual offering to allow easier access for support and these continue to run in this format for the foreseeable future.