Sports Development

The Sports Development team works across all areas of Blaenau Gwent supporting schools, clubs and the whole community.

The team works with a number of different local, regional and national partners to create and develop bespoke interventions to support local communities and families improve their physical and mental health.

We continue to deliver inspirational, engaging, high quality sport and physical activity programmes, projects, and interventions, particularly for children, young people and their families which are insight led and aligned to Sport Wales Investment Priority Areas:

  • Foundations

  • Participation

  • Progression

  • Performance

  • Succeed

  • Growing Capability, Capacity and Confidence

We aim to support and deliver:

  • The Foundation and Participations priorities via physical literacy development, primary school sport, secondary school sport, and community sport. 

  • The Progression and Performance priorities via our club development, partnerships with NGBs, and Sustainability of Grassroots Sports programme.

All programmes will be driven by insight gathered from number of different sources. Extra curricular secondary school sessions will be selected based on the latest school sport survey (SSS) data and the latent demand. A number of health and wellbeing interventions for secondary schools will be shaped by the School Health Research Network data (SHRN). 

Primary school support packages have been created and delivered to a number of primary schools. The focus was on adapting their current curriculum to the new one. This support will continue throughout the next year and will help the primary school phased reintroduce sport and physical activity opportunities.

The cross-cutting workforce development programme undertaken across the county borough includes playmakers; ambassador programme, coach education and officer training will contribute to growing capability, capacity and confidence priority. We will ensure promotion of equality throughout all of our provision and programmes. The main objective is to continue to offer sport and physical activity that is accessible to all. Disability inclusion sessions are integrated into all community and school provision.

Blaenau Gwent’s Community Sport model has created a gateway to local communities and has provided a platform for young people living in the area. Community Sport in Blaenau Gwent aims to encourage local young people to become more physically active in a safe and fun environment. Delivered in the community, for the community; sessions are current and vibrant, and are delivered by the ‘right people’, at the ‘right time’, in the ‘right place’, for the ‘right price’, and in the ‘right style’.

Our Club Development programmes provide support for sporting clubs and organisations from within Blaenau Gwent. Links with education provide a pathway from schools into local sporting clubs, helping to increase participation. Funding support is also available.

Working with the local partners will allow the continuation of Community Safety, Youth Engagement and Sport, and Alternative Education provision. 

For more information on Sports Development please email hannah.winmill@aneurinleisure.org.uk or call 01495 357779

Leadership and Volunteering Pathway

The sports development team works closely with the Youth Sport Trust (YST), using their leadership framework to provide a leadership and volunteering pathway for young people in Blaenau Gwent.

Its aim is to provide young people, supported by PE, sport and play to develop their personal leadership abilities.  Through a range of training and experiences, young people can acquire skills and experiences that enhance their ability to lead and communicate these skills to drive change for others around them.

The pathway begins as young as Years 4 and 5 with the Playmaker scheme and progresses through to Year 2 of college, working with Coleg Gwent students within the Platinum and Gold schemes.  As part of this pathway young people can be involved with the ‘I can Lead’. ‘Girls Active’ and ‘Coach of the Future’ programmes.

Integral to the pathway are volunteering opportunities where young people can work alongside and, eventually, run activities within the community based around sport with the support of the sports development team.

Ethan Morris – Journey to Coaching

Ethan started his coaching pathway for the Aneurin Leisure Sports Development team when he was 16 years old, beginning as a volunteer and working through to become a coach.

Ethan completed the sports leaders’ course with his peers where he learned the coaching fundamentals which gave him the ability to lead his own sport specific sessions. As time went on, he became more confident and started to get involved with the mass sporting events run by the sports development team. These included half-term and summer provisions and the primary school festivals.  

He then became a paid casual coach which meant he was leading his own multi-sports sessions within sports centres and the wider community across Blaenau Gwent. This allowed him to lead sessions independently and become more involved within the team.

As Ethan progressed and honed his skills, he was awarded with more paid work delivering a wide variety of sessions along with having a major role in planning and delivering the playscheme provisions within the sport centres.

Ethan said: “My biggest achievement during this period was taking over an unpopular Abertillery playscheme with a former colleague and building it back up. We went from having single figures to sixty plus participants in just under three years, delivering many different sporting activities and different themed parties. I am now on a 20-hour contract with many more responsibilities and job roles. I plan, organise and help deliver all the primary school festivals across Blaenau Gwent liaising with the teachers and linking with sporting national governing bodies such as the WRU, Cricket Wales and Welsh Athletics. I am also involved with the leadership programme alongside my colleagues to both primary and secondary school pupils. This is where I can lean on my own personal knowledge and experiences to help train the next generation of potential coaches.”

Alongside his work with the sports development team, Ethan also coaches football sessions with the Little Legends organisation delivering to 3–5-year-olds, coaching the basic fundamentals of football.

He said: “Eventually seeing them join local football clubs is very rewarding having been their coach. I am very thankful to be working with such a great team in Aneurin Leisure and without their support throughout the years I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

For more information about the pathway contact neil.vincent@aneurinleisure.org.uk

Chelsea Williams – Journey to Coaching

Chelsea began her journey to become a sports instructor for the Aneurin Leisure Trust sports development team when she was just 13 years of age as a volunteer in the Young Ambassador Programme.

From there Chelsea undertook the Sports Leaders course, which was offered at her secondary school, as a year 9 pupil, alongside a group of peers.  This involved weekly sessions which were engaging and involving and something she thoroughly enjoyed and looked forward to.  At this stage in her life, Chelsea was unaware of the opportunities that this would provide to her.

Following the Young Ambassador Programme, Chelsea began gaining volunteer hours, working alongside friends, at the local sports centre through the StreetGames initiative.  Over time she began to see how this single 1.5-hour session could take children away from anti-social behaviour on the streets and get them involved in sports and activities.

This motivated Chelsea to continue to volunteer for the Aneurin Leisure Trust sports development team for the next five years where she gained valuable life lessons, memories and insights to help shape her future.  It was during this time that Chelsea had the opportunity to apply for the National Leadership Academy (NLA), run by the Youth Sport Trust.

Being accepted into the NLA, meant being surrounded by like-minded young individuals who had a passion for inspiring others to be part of team/sport. For Chelsea, the NLA was a huge part of her growth and gave her the confidence in her own skills and abilities when it came to coaching.  Chelsea said: “The Young Ambassador Programme has shaped me into becoming the sports instructor I am today while also giving me invaluable skills for life such as communication.

In the spring of 2021, Chelsea was employed by Aneurin Leisure Trust’s sports development team which has provided her with opportunities to lead sessions of her own and alongside other coaches.  These sessions include the popular playschemes run during the school holidays and other holiday enrichment programmes such as ‘Sports & Snacks’.  Chelsea said: “My favourite part is always seeing children leave with smiles on their faces.”

More recently Chelsea has been involved in an ‘Us Girls’ project as part of an initiative to get more young girls into sport and physical activity alongside simply believing in themselves. She’s really enjoying seeing this start to take shape following securing funding for it alongside four other female colleagues.

Chelsea added: “The volunteer programme has been crucial to my development not only as a coach but as a person.  It’s another reason why I enjoy being a part of the leadership programme delivering programmes in primary and secondary schools across Blaenau Gwent.  I’m grateful to the Aneurin Leisure team and the NLA for being the leaders I needed, to be one myself.”

For more information about the pathway contact neil.vincent@aneurinleisure.org.uk