The University’s Department of Sport (Kent Sport) has inspired 1560 children through local school visits and events at the Kent Indoor Tennis and Events Arena this summer.
Kent Sport’s Development team embarked on the roadshow with the aim of encouraging more young people into sport and promoting awareness of the facilities open to public on the University’s Canterbury campus.
The team visited Blean, Joy Lane, Wincheap and Hernhill primary schools advocating the physical and mental health benefits of being active, learning new skills and making new friends in the process. Through sports such as tennis, football, hooping and Kwik Cricket, they focused on specific benefits around general communication, confidence, problem-solving, dealing with disappointments and the release of anxiety.
As well as visiting schools, Kent Sport welcomed local schools to its Tennis Festival at the Kent Indoor Tennis and Events Arena on the Canterbury campus. Around 200 primary and secondary schoolchildren visited the tennis centre to play in competition formats.
Further to this, Nick Skelton, Kent Sport’s Tennis Development Manager and leader of the summer sports roadshow, has been training secondary schoolchildren as Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) tennis leaders. Through the two-hour LTA leader training, schoolchildren from Harvey Grammar School learnt to communicate and organise activities with groups of children. They received a t-shirt and certificate on completion.
Nick said: ‘Through the sports roadshow this summer we have tried to encourage students to try different ways to be active. Hopefully, we’ve empowered them to choose the activities they most enjoyed, no matter what their current ability or confidence level is. We hope they continue to stay active wherever life takes them.
It’s been so rewarding to see so many children come alive through physical activity and hopefully some will make some healthy choices having been exposed to the joys of taking part in sport with Kent Sport.’
Left to right: Nick Skelton (Tennis Development Manager), Jenni Mullane (Health, Fitness and Performance Manager) and Dean Gonsalves (Sports Development Officer) visiting schools on the Roadshow
Nick Skelton training secondary schoolchildren as Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) tennis leaders