STUDENTS from Cirencester Kingshill School  hosted a sports day for local primary school girls to encourage them to engage in PE and school sport on Friday.

The five girls, who trained as Girls Active sports leaders at a national camp in March, welcomed 40 girls from Cirencester Primary School, Stratton C of E Primary School, Sapperton Church of England Primary School, and Watermore Primary School.

The ‘Primary Girls Can’ day, named after Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign, formed part of activities for the Girls Active programme, an initiative run by the Youth Sport Trust and Women in Sport, sponsored by Sport England National Lottery funding.

The programme, launched this year, seeks to tackle the relatively lower levels of physical activity participation by girls.

As Girls Active leaders, the team of 14-16-year-olds are charged with encouraging 50 more girls to get involved in sport.

 Year 9 pupil, Maisie Cooper, one of the pupils which hosted the event, said: “Today has been all about showing these young girls that you don’t have to be sporty to get involved and enjoy being active. We have learned all these different ways to get active, and want more girls to get involved and enjoy things like dance.”

The Years 4 and 5 girls visiting Kingshill took part in a range of activities, including clubbercise, a dance-based exercise with glow sticks, as well as challenges which build and promote leadership skills and confidence.

Girls Active seeks to provide a support framework to enable schools to develop their own tailored approach to tackling the issues of lower participation, poor body image, and a lack of understanding of the benefits of physical activity amongst the girls (11-14) attending those schools.

Teacher of Girls PE Rosanna Steel said: “The girls decided that they wanted to host a day for younger girls from the local area. This is about instilling good habits for life. Taking inspiration from the Sport England This Girl Can campaign, the girls have worked hard to design a fully inclusive day of activities for all these primary school students.

“Today has been excellent and I am so proud to see these girls developing into young leaders, delivering such an inspiring event, and building their own self confidence in the process.”

Youth Sport Trust Chief Executive Ali Oliver said: “Girls Active was designed for girls to take the programme and deliver it to their peers. Our pilot programme saw the number of girls who look forward to their PE lessons nearly doubled and the percentage of girls that felt positive about school rose from 24% to 78%. To hear of these activities, and for these girls to be promoting the programme within their local community, is excellent.

“Physical activity has many benefits for girls across all areas of their lives – for their physical and mental health, leadership skills, confidence and academic attainment. Girls Active helps teachers and girls work together to change the culture of physical activity, PE and sport in their school so all girls see being active a part of who they are and what they do. It provides teachers with training and ongoing support, and girls with inspiration and I hope that the girls’ work today goes on to inspire more young people to get involved in sport.”