It’s Scottish Women and Girls in Sport Week (30th September to 6th October) and High Life Highland has revealed that female participation in sports and physical activity within its Active Schools programme is higher in the west compared with other areas, with Active Schools also celebrating its 20th anniversary this term.
High Life Highland is delighted to see female participation across primary and secondary schools across the region up 7% from the previous year. The charity’s figures show that in the Adnamurchan school group, 83% of female pupils are being physically active through Active Schools, while in the Mallaig school group, 80% of female pupils are participating in Active Schools sessions.
Alan Gray is the Active Schools Coordinator for the Ardnamurchan schools cluster. He puts the high numbers of female pupils taking part in sport down to having inspirational leaders – the theme of this year’s Scottish Women and Girls in Sport Week.
“Shinty is one of the most popular Active Schools activities here in Ardnamurchan and that’s thanks to Lyndsay Bradley – headteacher of Acharacle and Kilchoan Primaries – who started up women’s shinty in the area and has brought through the youngsters from nursery to first team level. Having such a strong and inspirational woman leading the sessions and being committed to building the sport has been huge for women’s shinty on the peninsula.
“We also have a very strong dance group led by one of your Young Leaders, Helen Jones (S6) who devotes four hours a week between the Primary Group, Secondary Group and Youth Club. And the third big draw for girls here is rugby. Stevie MacAleer comes to do curriculum time rugby as the development officer and he has built the girls side of Lochaber Rugby Club up and we now have many of our girls attending afterschool sessions. The brilliant PE staff at Ardnamurchan High School have also been a massive, positive influence.
“We are in a remote and rural part of the Highlands so our young people are robust and resilient and for the most part, they tend to take any opportunity afforded to them, which is great.”
The challenges of delivering sporting opportunities in a rural area is very familiar to Pamela MacDonald, one of the first Active Schools Coordinators employed by The Highland Council. Before High Life Highland came into being in 2011, the local authority was responsible for Active Schools – covering an area the size of Belgium with some very remote schools and island communities in the mix – delivering this national initiative could have been seen as a big task but staff rose to the challenge.
Almost 20 years on and covering the Mallaig schools cluster, which includes Knoydart and the islands of Eigg and Muck, Pamela is still in this role and still loving the challenge of delivering sporting opportunities for young people in the local area.
“I’ve had to be quite creative and avoid being too prescriptive over the years to ensure that as many children in my patch are getting access to a variety of opportunities,” she said.
“We were training volunteers online long before it became the norm during the pandemic, and now we are even delivering Tai Kwando online with an instructor from Inverness.”
According to Pamela, what has made her job easier over the years has been the enthusiasm of High School students to get involved in delivering Active Schools activities through the Leadership Programme, along with a band of willing parent helpers.
“Our Young Leaders are essentially delivering all of our activities and the high levels of female participation are particularly down to our enthusiastic dance Leaders.
“A big game changer however for our Active Schools programme in recent years has been more cross service working with the likes of the High Life Highland Countryside Rangers. We have the most amazing landscape and outdoor spaces here, so we have been using this to our advantage.”
Sarah Ross from Skye – another long service Active Schools Coordinator – agrees wholeheartedly with both Pamela in relation to geographical challenges and Alan’s observations around womens shinty.
She said: “Transport in rural areas is a barrier to getting young leaders and session participants to activities – we rely heavily on parents – and access to suitable venues can also be challenging. Like Pamela we’ve had to be quite creative, such as linking up with local clubs to offer things like sailing, making the most of the fabulous outdoor offering on Skye.
“One of the biggest changes I have seen in two decades of Active Schools is the ever-increasing popularity of girls shinty. It was always hockey when I grew up on Skye now female shinty rules supreme!”
Andrea Mackenzie, Area Sports Development Manager for High Life Highland said: “There’s lots to celebrate in terms of sporting opportunities for our young people with the Active Schools programme continuing to deliver for so many of them and we are really encouraged by the levels of female participation in sport climbing back towards where they were pre-pandemic. The rise in female participation we’re seeing is a positive sign that initiatives like Active Schools and the Young Leader programme are having an impact.”
