Newsletters

YST/ LTA ‘Beyond the Baseline’ – Tennis/ Athlete Mentor, Aspiration Raising Programme – Funded Places for 2024/ 2025.

https://www.youthsporttrust.org/programmes-list/beyond-the-baseline

We are delighted to inform you that recruitment for schools to be part of Beyond the Baseline is now open.  The LTA have kindly funded the programme for 2025, so all Athlete visits, resources and support are fully funded and FREE to your school worth £1800. 

The programme uses professional tennis athletes to work with 25 students to raise their aspirations and deliver a community tennis project for your school.  This will involve 3 half-day Athlete mentor inspiration sessions.  If your school took part last year, you could still apply again, as you would be working with a different group of young people.

Closing date: Thursday 19 December 2024. To submit an expression of interest and find out more information, please apply here: https://www.youthsporttrust.org/programmes-list/beyond-the-baseline

There are limited places for this programme, 35 to 40 schools will be successful, and we will hold a reserve list. If successful, you will be asked to submit a short project outline.

We will contact Schools by Friday 24 January 2025 to let you know the outcome. 

Government guidelines to make school runs happier, healthier and greener 

New guidance will help to design activity into our neighbourhoods and reduce congestion on the roads during school run times.

Millions more school runs across the country can now be transformed to be healthier, safer, greener and more active, thanks to new government guidelines published today (19 November 2024).

The guidance, published by Active Travel England and the Department for Transport, outlines how councils can better deliver school street schemes, so that they work best for pupils and staff as well as local businesses and residents.

A School Street temporarily only allows motor traffic with a permit outside the school gates at pick up and drop off times. This creates a safer space for children and their families to walk, wheel, cycle or scoot to school, bringing a wealth of benefits to both school pupils and residents, including:

• improved physical and mental health for schoolchildren
• reduced cases of dangerous driving, parking and turning outside schools during school run times
• more children staying active by walking, wheeling or cycling to school, which in turn reduces traffic in the local area during school drop off and pick up
• more opportunities for social interactions on the way to school, and more independence for older pupils
• reduction in emissions around schools

There are already hundreds of School Streets funded across the country, including more than 180 funded by the government’s Active Travel Fund.

Today’s guidance also cites research and evidence from the Road Safety Trust, which shows these schemes increase active travel on the school run, are supported by most parents and residents in the nearby community, and do not cause significant road safety issues through traffic displacement.

It comes after recent research commissioned by ATE found that 85% of people in England support active travel and would like to do more, while data from charity Sustrans has previously found that 4 out of 5 children want to walk or cycle to school.

Read more on the new guidance here.