About Us

What is the School Sport Partnership?

We are a partnership of schools hosted by Durham Sixth Form Centre who develop sport and physical activity for young people and their families in the Durham City and Chester-le-Street areas. Our 64 partner educational establishments consist of 2 Infant schools, 2 Junior schools, 49 primary schools, 7 secondary schools, 2 special schools and 2 FE college. In addition we work closely with Durham University on a number of programmes and projects.

We believe that:
  • Sport changes people’s lives for the better
  • Physical activity from a young age sets a pathway for lifelong participation
  • Sport develops people who are healthy in body and mind
We aim to achieve change by:
  • Providing a wide variety of sporting opportunities for all
  • Engaging all schools in our ethos and programmes
  • Celebrating success and embracing achievements at all levels
  • Working with our partners to enable young people to sustain a healthy lifestyle
  • Upskilling primary school teachers in the field of Physical Education
Our targets are:
  • To increase the number of young people that are members of a community club
  • To sustain the number of young people participating in SSP competitions
  • To sustain the number children accessing 2hrs of High Quality PE in primary schools
  • To increase the number of children accessing 2hrs of High Quality PE in secondary schools
  • To increase the number of young disabled people accessing sporting opportunities
Examples of current programmes that we are involved with:
  • National SchoolGames
  • Change For Life
  • Locally driven SSP initiatives
  • Chance to Shine Cricket Programme
  • County Durham leadership academy
  • Durham Dash Urban Athletics Programme
OUR WORK

Our day to day work varies largely depending on current government initiatives however at the core of our delivery we provide a comprehensive programme to schools covering sport specific coaching, competitions, festivals, teacher training and leadership.

SSP Coaching Support Programme

We work with a number of coaches to provide High Quality coaching opportunities for young people within and outside of the National Curriculum and within community settings.  Coaches work alongside teachers in curriculum settings.

All coaches hold a minimum of a Level 2 coaching qualification and where possible there will be a community outlet for each sport to direct interested young people towards.

SSP Competition & Festival Programme

We aim to deliver a comprehensive annual programme of competition and festival opportunities for all young people. This involves an annual programme of over 120 opportunities ranging from Dance festivals to a huge multi-sport event each June involving over 1500 young people. Please see competition section of the website for further information.

SSP Leadership Programme

We run an annual Leadership & Volunteering programme for young people aged 14+. This programme runs in conjunction with County Durham Sport and Durham County Council and offers young people from local schools the chance to gain valuable experience within this field along with gaining new training and qualifications. On an annual basis we have around 50 young people enrolled in the programme. The young people gain experience both within their own school and the local community as well as assisting at SSP competitions and festivals covering a variety of sports and working with hundreds of younger children.

Teacher Training

We plan, organise and deliver an annual CPD programme for teaching and other school staff. We emply highly skilled PE specialists who work alongide primary staff to provide team teaching. This also involves at least one workshop every 12 weeks covering topics that have been requested from our schools. All workshops are delivered by highly qualified professionals with years of experience of working with schools and specifically up-skilling primary PE teachers within Physical Education.