Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Education Secretary Michael Grove announced here at The City of London Academy that up to £10 million ($15 million) of lottery funding, distributed by Sport England, will create a new sports league structure for primary and secondary schools culminating in an inaugural national final to be held in the run up to the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012.

The scheme, which was first proposed by the Conservatives last year, will see schools compete against each other in leagues at a local level from 2011 with winning athletes and teams qualifying for up to 60 county finals.

The most talented young athletes will then be selected for the national finals while schools will also be encouraged to host in-house Olympic-style sports days so that children of all abilities have the opportunity to compete.

There will be a Paralympic element at every level of the competition for young people with disabilities while the ambition is for the competition to continue after 2012.

Robertson claimed that the competition is a key part of the Government’s plans to create a lasting sporting legacy from hosting the London 2012 Games and to maximise the sporting opportunities available to all.

Robertson told insidethegames: "I think this is an incredibly exciting opportunity and I think it partly answers the question of, ‘What is the sporting legacy from London 2012?’

"The legacy from 2012 is coming out of this because every single child going through the school system in England today has the opportunity to play competitive sport and they are inspired to do that by 2012.

"That is the best possible use of the London Olympics."

The newly formed competition will merge with the existing UK School Games which were inaugurated in 2006 under the previous Labour Government.

Robertson believes that new system offers a better alternative to the UK School Games which is only open to the most talented young school children. 

He said: "The UK School Games has proved a brilliant pinnacle competition but what it has not yet done, and there is no blame attached to this in any way, is produce an equal and opposite reaction in the grassroots because it is very much an elite level sport governing body competition.

"So what today is all about is driving a revolution right at the bottom and pushing that upwards.

"The UK School Games will therefore essentially become this new school Olympics but it is fed by a series of county level feeder competitions that are in turn fed by city and district based competitions that are in turn fed by intra and inter schools competitions one level down.

"So it is the bottom end of it that is the revolution here and not the top end."

Steve Grainger, chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust, revealed that he is excited by today’s announcement and pleased to see a structure in place to help children who do not make it to the elite level.

Grainger told insidethegames: "We've established a very strong base with the UK School Games and we are happy to reposition and realign them to make sure that they fit with the top level of this new scheme.

"There is no place for repetition and no place for two different events so the conversations we have had with the new Sports and Olympics Minister have been about integrating that and about making a more concerted effort to ensure we profile the schools that the individual youngsters come from and making sure we give those schools and the teachers in them the due recognition they deserve for getting those youngsters to the top.

"Our main focus is and always will be school sport so it is fantastic that this new coalition Government has put school sport right at the heart of its policy and strategy and we are delighted to be working with them to bring that alive for schools around the country."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected] 


Related stories
June 2010: Government to officially launch Dame Kelly Holmes plan for School Olympics