Sport for All

Aim

Artigarvan PS PTA's aim is to offer after school sports activities for ALL children in years 1-7 several days per week over 12 weeks

Who are we?

We are the PTA of Artigarvan Primary School.  We are a small rural primary school located in the village of Artigarvan County Tyrone.  The school was opened in 1972 and enjoyed celebrating 50 years last year. Our school has a strong sense of community between family, friends and surrounding villages which our pupils come from.

Click here to visit our school website

Artigarvan Primary School and the Community

Artigarvan Primary School has a strong link to the local community.  We have links with Artigarvan Community Hall, Fox Lodge Cricket Club and Artigarvan Community Response volunteers.  Most recently the volunteers have helped with our Artigarvan Growing Together pollinator and Sensory Garden Project. The project has created an engaging and accessible outdoor learning space that has brought the school family together along with the wider community in using the space for intergenerational projects.

Our school plays a big part in the community where locals come and look forward to events such as our Annual Christmas Pantomime and Supper With Santa event. The school and wider community enjoy a magical night with Christmas storytelling, craft, singing, dancing, tea and mince pies and best of all, a visit to see Santa. 

We hold an annual summer fun day where local businesses/crafters are invited to set up stalls and locals can come to shop, this event includes outdoor entertainment for children of all ages with games, bouncy castles and much more.  It is a day for everyone to come together and is always extremely popular.  

We held a couch to 5k event open to anyone in the local community which was very successful especially for bringing Mums together to do something for themselves. On the day of the 5k event lots of the school staff, families and local community came together to support the participants with a celebration when they had finished. 

Just last year our school celebrated 50 years, opening its doors to past pupils and staff in the community with lots of celebrations and displays of memories from years gone by, something which was thoroughly enjoyed by all.  

With shared education up and running again our pupils are enjoying getting to know pupils from nearby local schools through participation in multiple sports.

Why are we Crowdfunding?

Artigarvan Primary School PTA aim to increase participation in after school sports activities by expanding our current, limited program. We will offer kids of all ages (4 to 11) the chance to stay after school and be introduced to and participate in a wide variety of new sports including netball, badminton, rugby. Also continue to offer football, cricket and hockey by qualified coaches in a fun and safe environment.  We want to encourage girls especially to participate in all sports being offered. The money will enable us to provide coaches to run the after school activities.

We would like to put into motion the 'Sport for ALL' Project. During prolonged school closures due to covid children were unable to participate in sport of any kind.  When school returned after school sport was not permitted.  Since school returned, we have found it difficult to secure funding to provide after school activities.  Our school is in a rural location, there are limited sports or after school activities close by and at an affordable price proving impossible for a lot of the children within our school community to attend after school sports, this has been heightened further by the cost of living and fuel crisis. The project will offer our rural kids of all abilities from 4 years old the opportunity to stay after school several days per week and be introduced to new sports. Our aim is to increase participation in a variety of sports to increase physical activity and improve mental health which was greatly impacted during covid.  The project would allow children to socialise and have fun with children of their own age, another area that our children have missed out on due to the pandemic.  This would help develop resilience, build confidence, promote problem solving skills and a sense of belonging, as children play sport in a familiar, safe environment.  The project will have a lasting legacy as children will be in the routine of playing sport after school from a young age, we will have qualified coaches within our school community and we will have equipment to allow the children to remain active after the 12 week project. 

Parents and teachers within the school community have noted the need for this after school sports project.  Parents have noted that children are more reliant on electronic devices since covid spending too much time on screens at home.  Teachers have noted poorer coordination and ball handling skills in PE lessons, due to the lack of sport played during covid.  We plan to use the power of sport to improve all the above areas. 

How will we spend the money raised?

With the financial support from crowdfunder we will be able to pay coaches to lead after school sports for all children, three times a week.  It will also enable us to purchase some much needed new and up to date sports equipment as well as a new school football and hockey kit for sporting events and as it stands, we don’t have a cricket team kit.  Thinking long term, we would very much like spend the money on coach education so that members of our school community will have the opportunity to train as coaches, providing employment and leaving a lasting legacy for our project. 

Our project would run for twelve weeks in term two or three where children in years 1-3 will have the opportunity to stay behind for after school sports from 2-3pm and children in years 4-7 from 3-4 pm, this would ideally be available Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  Not all families in our school would normally be able to afford three days coaching especially those with multiple siblings at the school so this would be an amazing opportunity for such families, with the children experiencing the benefit of it for the first time. The cost-of-living crisis could now also be a barrier to families who would normally have been able to pay for after school sports, therefore we really want to be able to cover the cost of coaches and equipment. 

If we raise £2500 Sport NI will match fund with a further £5000 towards our project. 

How you can play your part 

There are x simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

This project successfully funded on 3rd February 2023