National School Sport Week
School pupils from across Derbyshire will be 'running to Beijing' as part of the county's activities to mark the first ever National School Sport Week.
The national initiative to increase the profile of school sport and celebrate the work being done within school sport takes place from Monday, June 30 to Friday, July 4, and as part of the programme of activities within Derbyshire, children in the county's primary, infant and junior schools are being challenged to 'Run to Beijing'.
Pupils will complete shuttle-runs on a 10-metre course against the clock, and it is hoped that collectively Derbyshire pupils will be able to complete the 8,000km distance from Derbyshire to Beijing, the host city for this summer's Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Derbyshire Sport Senior Competition Manager Will Evans said: "This interactive, virtual challenge has the potential to involve more than 60,000 pupils from primary schools in Derby and Derbyshire.
"It offers schools the opportunity to promote school sport and also to take part in inter-school competition as the distance covered by each school will be recorded. The average distances covered by schools will then be calculated to allow small schools to compete with larger ones."
A host of other special sporting activities will also be taking place across the county during National School Sport Week.
This includes a virtual transatlantic Gamercize competition, which will see pupils at Granville Secondary School compete against pupils at a school in California.
Gamercize combines physical activity with video games, and the contest will begin at 3.30pm on Monday, June 30.
On the same day Chapel-en-le-Frith High School will host a Cheerfest from 11am until 4pm.
Special guest at the event will be Sue Campbell, Chair of the Youth Sport Trust and Chief Executive of UK Sport.
Activities on the Tuesday will include a Mini Olympics at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Ashbourne.
Children aged five to seven (KS1) from local infant and primary schools will take part, and will experience many different Olympics-themed athletics activities.
Wilsthorpe Business and Enterprise Collegein Erewash will host a year nine Dodgeball competition on Wednesday, July 2, while at Ecclesbourne School in Amber Valley pupils will get a chance to try kickboxing.
On the same day Moorways Sports Stadium in Derby will play host to the East Midlands Airport Derbyshire Schools' Miniathlon Championships, which will see teams of up to five athletes from schools across the county compete.
And Olympic and World Championship Medallist in cycling Bryan Steel will be the special guest at a Leadership and Volunteering celebration being held in the Derbyshire Dales.
New Age Kurling will be coming to Derby's Royal School for the Deaf on Thursday, July 3, while pupils in South Derbyshire will enjoy an Extreme Sports Day at Rosliston Forestry Centre.
Organised by South Derbyshire District Council Community Sports Coach John Widdowson, pupils will take part in mountain biking with British Cycling, KMX Karting, archery and climbing. Teams will be scored on each individual event as well as team work and attitude, and will compete for the schools Extreme title.
Also attending the Extreme Sports event will be Sporting Champion Jenny Copnall.
The cyclist has represented England and Great Britain at many World and European championships, as well as competing at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Her many achievements include becoming British National Champion in 2007, and winning the British National Series for four years running, from 2003 to 2006.
Also on July 3 will be a Golf Extreme event at Ecclesbourne School, and there will be High 5 Netball at Ashbourne's Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School.
Rounding the week off will be skateboarding and fencing at Murray Park School in Derby and an inter-schools Tri Golf event in Chesterfield on Friday, July 4.
South Derbyshire's Greenbank Leisure Centre will also host the area's first Sainsbury's Girls Active event for 120 'semi sporty' girls to engage them in a variety of physical activity. Pupils from John Port, William Allitt, Granville and Pingle secondary schools will attend and be given the chance to try aerobics, spinning, dance mats, cheerleading and martial arts.
The event is sponsored by Sainsbury's, which has provided funding for the day to help cover costs as well as fruit and refreshments on the day.
For more information about National School Sport Week visit the Youth Sport Trust website at www.youthsporttrust.org
To read more about individual events click on the links below.