Using Sport to Improve Life Skills - Kibble: Specialist services & support for young people facing adversity
Posted: August 27, 2019

On Tuesday 13 August, Kibble education staff attended a great training workshop by charity Winning Scotland Foundation, to learn tools and guidance on using sport as a platform for life learning.

The training was made possible thanks to generous funding from investment managers Baillie Gifford as part of the Positive Coaching Scotland Programme (PCS Plus). This is a new pilot project to support young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to learn important life skills through informal sport, play and physical activity. The project will benefit young people in care, children from areas of deprivation and young people with disabilities.

The project will see up to 200 coaches, teachers and youth workers from a range of organisations including:

PEEK, a charity who improve the life chances of children and young people in the east end of Glasgow through play and creative learning.

Bike for Good, a cycling charity that helps young people access bicycles, and learn to ride and maintain them.

Trust Rugby International, a charity that uses unified rugby, where players with and without disabilities play together, to enable participation for those who may otherwise be prevented

Delivering the programme will be expert tutors from the Winning Scotland Foundation, Scottish Rugby, the Scottish FA and sportscotland. Kibble are privileged to be part of the programme, thanks to the hugely generous support by Baillie Gifford. A really worthwhile project, it is addressing a gap where adults who support young people in informal sport often miss out on the training and development opportunities that their peers in sports like football and rugby enjoy as standard.

By providing this training to education staff, the aim is to equip young people with important life skills including confidence, perseverance and learning from mistakes, using sport as a powerful platform.

Tom Laurie, Head Teacher of Kibble, said: “The session provided education staff with coaching tools to engage young people positively in the learning process. Teachers were reminded of the importance of building a positive learning environment with young people at the centre. The emphasis on effort, challenge, struggle and learning from mistakes provided knowledge in helping pupils to achieve greater levels of success”.

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