Debbie, 17, fights government cuts
A DETERMINED teenager is taking on the Government in a fight to keep sports a priority in schools.
The axe has fallen on funding for school sports as part of the coalition’s drive to slash the UK’s deficit.
But young ambassador Debbie Foote is so passionate about protecting school sport partnerships she is leading a campaign with the backing of the 450 schemes across the country.
Debbie, 17, of Langdale Crescent, Grantham, said: “The Government is letting young people down. I’m questioning the cost the cuts will have on the development of our young people from the point of the health and also the skills they gain through sports.
“In less than two years we will be putting on the greatest show on Earth, the 2012 Olympics. We promised to inspire young people to choose sport and we are in danger of breaking that promise.”
The first stage in the battle to protect sports began by sending petitions to school sports partnerships across the country.
They were then delivered to schools with the aim of collecting a million signatures.
A walk joined by high profile athletes and 2,012 young ambassadors - to signify the 2012 Olympics - will take place in Westminster on December 7, before the petition is handed over in Downing Street.
Debbie said: “The petition can be signed by anybody who believes in school sports. All you have to do is go to your local school before December 1 and ask to sign it.”
Debbie’s concerns, which are echoed across the partnerships, are that obesity will rise if the funding cuts go ahead and that young people, particularly in primary schools, will be denied the chance to try new sports.
She also feels that the cuts fly in the face of the London 2012 Olympics.
On Wednesday, Debbie sat on a panel at a seminar chaired by Labour MP Andy Burnham and joined by Olympic gold medallist Darren Campbell, where she talked about the importance of school sports.
However, Debbie’s efforts may be in vain, as children’s minister Tim Loughton told the Journal: “Creating an Olympic legacy must be more than simply investing taxpayers’ cash to meet a centralised, arbitrary five-hours-a week target, which still left low levels of high quality competitive sport in many parts of the country.
“We’re giving heads the freedom to make more of the established network of school sport partnerships but without being tied down by centralised targets and a bureaucratic blueprint set by ministers.”
• What do you think of Debbie’s campaign? Should the Government continue to fund sports partnerships?
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Wednesday 22 February 2012
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Alrighty then
Sunday, November 21, 2010 at 08:18 PMComment removed by moderator
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