Teaching School-Age Sport

Lord Smith of Finsbury Excerpts

Wednesday 7th December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Smith of Finsbury]

My Lords, it is a privilege to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, and a pleasure to be taking part in this very short but important debate. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Addington, for tabling the subject. I want to make three brief points about why school-age sport—that means sport in schools, sports associated with schools but outside school hours and sport completely separate from school—is so important. It is important because it can and should be preparation for sporting endeavour and even sporting excellence in later life. The quality of the teaching, of the facilities and of the enthusiasm that is communicated to youngsters at school are crucial in helping the transfer from school age to later life. It can be life-changing. I know that because I first found informal sport—through hillwalking and mountaineering—at school. It became a very important part of my life subsequently. As an aside, I say that I hope very strongly that we can rediscover a spirit of adventure for young people, the ability to take risks in engaging in informal recreation in the outdoors, because we have lost a lot of that in recent years and we need to find it again.

In both informal and formal sport, sport at a young age can lead to riches later in life. Secondly, sport can enhance the educational original experience and overall quality of a school. Sports, both competitive and non-competitive, can make a huge contribution to the atmosphere and culture of a school and the ability of pupils to engage with academic subjects, as well as with their sport. That is why, when I was Secretary of State at DCMS, I encouraged Sport England to come forward with a substantial programme of funding for school sports co-ordinators. That is why we endeavoured, with a modest degree of success, to prevent the selling off of school playing fields. It is why the school partnership programme was a valuable attempt to link the enthusiasm of sporting clubs and societies with the engagement of pupils in schools. These things are not just important for sport; they are so important for the quality of the education as a whole that pupils receive.

My third point links a little to what the noble Baroness, Lady Howells, said. We do not need to read the recent report, Reading the Riots, about what happened back in the summer to understand why some young people get into trouble, hang about on street corners, join gangs and smash windows. It is not just because of poverty of circumstance—housing, environment and upbringing. It is because of all those things and more, but often it is because of poverty of aspiration. The starting point for any process of regeneration, either physical or social, has to be giving young people a chance to find self-esteem, to find something that they can be proud of themselves for having done, something to give them a sense of real achievement. Sports can give them that.

I would say the same about music, drama, dance and the arts in general as well, but the chance to play sport and to become part of a team, part of a league, to endeavour to excel—the chance to do all those things that sports can be to young people in an exciting and enthusiastic way—can be life-changing. Let us make sure that more of our young people get that opportunity.