Cycling, Pilates, dance and HIIT training were on offer to students who attended the launch of a new This Girl Can campaign by Erewash School Sport Partnership.
Students from Kirk Hallam Community Academy, Ormiston Ilkeston Enterprise Academy, Friesland School, Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy and Wilsthorpe School were all part of the inspirational event held at Derby Arena.
This Girl Can is a national campaign designed to get more girls involved in sport and as part of that ESSP organised the session for students who will be ambassadors for the campaign in their own schools.
As well as trying the activities, girls also talked about how being active made them feel and how they could be positive role models for their peers back in their schools.
Rhian Lilley, Erewash School Sport Partnership development manager, said she hoped that the girls left the session feeling inspired.
She said: “It’s all about trying to find something that girls enjoy doing to encourage them to keep being active into their teenage years. That’s why we organised a session at the Velodrome in Derby because the majority of them will not have experienced that before. Some of the girls were quite nervous to start with as it’s a different type of cycling with no brakes and you feet are clipped on to the pedals. As they rode around the track it was incredible to see their confidence increasing and they all made great progress.
“They are great students who are full of enthusiasm and we hope that they can pass that on to their classmates in their schools. We look forward to seeing the ideas that they come up with to encourage girls to be active.”
Kym Bird, PE teacher at Friesland School, said: “We want our girls who are attending today to be proactive and encourage more girls back in school to join in. We want them to lead this campaign and take ownership of it. They come away from an event like this absolutely buzzing. We want to give girls a range of experiences because the more experiences they get the more chance there is of them finding something they enjoy doing.”
Vic Daley, Head of PE at Kirk Hallam, said: “We are looking at holding after school sessions including Zumba and dance. The girls have lots of ideas for a slogan and rewards. I’d also like to get a kickboxing coach in school because that would work well, the girls would enjoy that.”
Notes to editors: Erewash School Sport Partnership is a group of 45 schools working together to develop PE and sport opportunities for all young people. Its core priority is to improve the quality and quantity of PE and sport in schools. The partnerships aims to engage, motivate and include as many young people as possible in a positive PE and sport experience.

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