Festival Friday for 300 children and young people

On Friday 29 September, Active North Tyneside and North Tyneside’s PE, Sport and Physical Activity team delivered the first Healthy4Life Festival.

Hosted at The Parks Sports Centre in North Shields, children from nine primary schools in the borough took part and young people from Norham High School acted as Young Leaders in some of the sessions, giving them some great experience of working at a sporting event.

Throughout the course of the day, 281 year five pupils took part in a range of workshops and sessions covering all things physical activity and healthy lifestyle. Some examples of the types of sessions included in the schedule included cycling, hockey, dance, cheerleading, football, rugby, skipping, cooking and wellbeing!

The festival was supported by a range of partners including Bike4Health, Dance Decote, Newcastle Falcons, Newcastle United Foundation, NET 360, North East Cheerleading, Power Through Sport, and Skip4Fit.

In addition to educating children about the importance of a healthy lifestyle, the aim of the Healthy4Life Festival is to get children to try new sports and signpost them to opportunities to continue to participate in the activities they enjoy most after the event.

The festival was brought to a close with some words of encouragement and a certificate presentation from Beth Guy who works in North Tyneside and plays for Middlesbrough’s womens football team.

Following the success of the event and the feedback from the participating schools and children, the teams are working hard behind the scenes to plan a repeat of the festival in 2024!

If you work at a primary school in North Tyneside and would be interested in attending a 2024 Healthy4Life Festival, get in touch to register your interest by emailing active@northtyneside.gov.uk