News in Bridgend County Borough

Anne Anderson, Disability Sport Cymru Officer, Moves On

Anne Andersson, Disability Sport Cymru Officer, has left Bridgend Sports Development Unit to take up a post with a leisure and sports trust in England.

Anne, who has been working in Bridgend County Borough for 6 years, has made a valued contribution to the development of disability sport in Wales and in particular provided disabled people the opportunity to participate in sport and recreation within the County Borough.

Andrew Thomas, Sport & Recreation Manager (Development) said ”A number of high quality clubs and programmes have been established and we are working with Disability Sports Cymru to identify how to take the programme forward in the future. As we head towards the 2012 Paralympic Games we are confident that a number of Bridgend based athletes will feature and this would be a great opportunity to inspire other young people”.

All at Bridgend Sports Development Unit would like to thank Anne for her efforts and wish her all the best for the future. (February 2007)

5x60
The Welsh Assembly Government has laid down the fitness gauntlet by setting the target of seeing 90% of children taking part in 60 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity on at least five days of the week by 2020.

Many young people take part in school sport, but fewer who take part in activities outside of school. After they leave compulsory education most young people do not take part in any form of regular sport or physical activity at all!!

Only 24% of secondary school age children do 5x60 minutes of physical activity per week and children progressing from Dragon Sport into year 7 lack opportunities to continue extracurricular activity

The main aim of the 5x60 programme is:

* To increase the percentage that children of secondary school age undertake 5x60 minutes of sport and physical activity.

* Focus on children taking part in less than 5x60 minutes of activity per week.

* Create children leaving school who are positive about sport and physical activity, skilful, knowledgeable and active.

Through the Sports Council for Wales, a number of 5x60 officers have been placed in local schools in the Bridgend area. The officers currently work with 4 secondary schools; Bryntirion, Cynffig, Maesteg and Ynysawdre.