Basketball helps Vale pupils bounce up to ‘big school’

Sport is helping to make the step up from primary school to secondary school more comfortable for youngsters in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Year six pupils from Cadoxton Primary School are joining year seven boys from Barry Comprehensive School for weekly sessions on the basketball courts at Cadoxton Sports Hall in a joint project between the Vale Council’s Dragon Sport and 5x60 schemes.

Ben Williams, the 5x60 officer for Barry Comprehensive School, said: "Young pupils already benefit from transition days so that they can become familiar with their surroundings at secondary school, and we felt that additional sports sessions would be another way of helping to make the move up to secondary school less daunting."

Ben added: "Sport is great for bringing people of all ages together, and these combined basketball sessions give the younger boys another taste of secondary school life by mixing with older pupils. This will aid their personal and social transition between schools and also introduces them to the fun and varied sporting opportunities they can have by getting involved in the 5x60 scheme."

The 5x60 scheme builds on the sporty start that the Dragon Sport scheme gives pupils in primary schools. Focusing on eight key sports, Dragon Sport encourages younger pupils aged seven to 11 to get active, while 5x60 creates a vast timetable of extra-curricular sports for secondary school pupils to choose from and hit the national target of taking part in exercise for at least 60 minutes, five days a week.

Both schemes are run by Sport Wales and are supported locally by the Vale Council’s sports and play development team. To find out more, please go online at www.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/sportsandplay