Education partnership officer, UK Anti-Doping

When did the UKAD start offering education programmes for children?
During the run up to 2012, UKAD identified that athletes needed to receive clean sport education at an earlier stage in the pathway. It was from here that the body focused on developing education provision for young people. At the time, Team GB and the British Paralympic Association (BPA) had started the Get Set legacy programme and so, working in partnership, UKAD, Team GB and BPA developed Get Set for the Spirit of Sport for 10-14 year olds.

Due to the success and positive impact of the Get Set for the Spirit of Sport, UKAD then decided to develop another values-based education programme for 7-10 year olds, to capture athletes at the very start of the pathway.

Why are these initiatives important?
Both of these programmes define and reinforce the spirit of sport and the values this includes. If we’re able to educate young people on this at an early age then they’re likely to refer back to these values during their sports journey and especially when faced with difficult situations.

The resources include parent and guardian activities, with the aim that we can encourage parents and/or guardians to also have an understanding of these values and therefore reinforce this message to their children.

Tell us more about the programme
It’s a values-based education programme. The programme is a cross-curricular tool for teachers to use within their PE/PSHE lessons. There are six sessions all based around the Olympic and Paralympic values.

For each session, we include lesson objectives and an outline of activities, plus resources for games, non-participants, session prizes and activities to complete at home with parents and guardians. The resources are all digital downloads through the Get Set website. Schools simply have to log in to the site to access all resources. These can be downloaded and used either as six sessions consecutively or as individual sessions.

What’s the Think Real programme?
Think Real is a partnership programme between Team GB, BPA, Sport England, ourselves and supported by the English Institute of Sport. The programme aims to inspire young people aged 11-16 to make healthy, informed decisions by educating young people on the links between their nutrition, recovery and physical activity and the impact on their all-round health.

The programme uses engaging films to encourage young people to take ownership of their learning and lifestyles. The resources included activity sheets, presentations and expert information. There are two sets of resources, one for a general audience in PSHE delivery and another for GCSE PE students.

All of the resources were developed through young person focus groups and teacher consultation.

What are the major aims for the programmes?
The programme’s main aims are to educate young people on the values of sport to ensure that at the very start of anyone’s journey they have an understanding of what these are and how to apply them on and off the field of play. UKAD aims to get more schools using these resources to ensure that this education is being widely spread across the very beginning of any sports pathway.

How can schools and parents get involved?
For schools to get involved is very easy. They just have to head to the Get Set website and create a log-in. Then it’s simply a case of going to the resources page, clicking on the Spirit of Sport, Spirit of Sport in Competition or Think Real links and downloading any resources they want.

For parents to get involved, the Spirit of Sport and Spirit of Sport in Competition resources both have parent and guardian activities included in the programme.

Any future plans for the programmes?
Within the education team we’re always looking to develop new programmes and resources that will further support and educate athletes, parents and support personnel on clean sport. Education within this early stage of the pathway is vital to the future of clean sport education and therefore we’re always working in close partnerships to improve education at this level.