Manchester House Project: Sports day designed and delivered by our young people

Posted 11th August 2022

Our young people hosted a sports day for a holiday club which was running at Moss Side Millennium Powerhouse. Our young people planned the session themselves and you can see the session plan below: 

 

Our young people discussed the sports day which is taking place on Thursday 11th August 2022. The group engaged well and again made many suggestions into the sports activities they think they should deliver to the play scheme they are volunteering to do this with. Activities the group came up with included: 

• Relay race 
• Skipping competition 
• Wheelbarrow race 
• Sack race 

• Egg and spoon race 
• Obstacle course 
• 3-legged race 
• Hula hoop 
• Beat the goalie 

These activities were great suggestions from the group. Facilitators then agreed to check the sports equipment at the Powerhouse, so we can then determine which activities we have the resources for.  The group stated they think the children should split into 4 teams and come up with their own team names. We explored ensuring suitable refreshments such as icepops, water and a wider variety of refreshments were provided as it was forecast to be extremely hot. The group felt we should end the session with a staff vs young people race or a tug of war between everybody. It was decided that the children can receive trophies and medals, however they are all winners. Our young people stated that there should be sports day rules including: 

• Always encourage your own team 
• To remain happy and not strop if you lose as again – everybody is a winner 
• No foul play / cheating 
• Listening 

• Be respectful to each other. 

The group engaged brilliantly in this session and came up with everything themselves which showed fantastic ownership and responsibility as staff didn’t need to input a lot into this session. 

Following this, our young people successfully delivered the sports day to the children. Our young people were very confident and took control of the day. The children all engaged with the activities and the feedback from them was all very positive. Days following this when the children saw our young people they would say hello and know their names which shows they successfully built relationships with the community as a result this event.