Download Letter from The Place

30 August 2007
Mr Frank Dobson MP
House of Commons
London SW1A 1AA
The Place is joining with colleagues across the country to urge Government to build dance into its plans for the £100 million funding recently made available
to make athletics, team games and fitness an everyday part of school life. My colleagues and I would be delighted if you would join us in pressing
Government further to enhance the School Sports Strategy by giving more attention and resources to dance.
Dance is the second most popular physical activity for young people after football (source: PE and School Sport Club Links scheme) and the top activity for
girls outside school: it is imperative that adequate dance provision is made in young people’s statutory education. Dance gets more young people active,
particularly those unwilling to take part in competitive sports, helping to meet the Government target to halt the rise in obesity in under 11s by 2010. Dance
is a physical activity that is already hugely popular with young people, with demand for dance outstripping supply in schools: the number of students taking
Dance GCSE rose by 125% between 2001 and 2005.
Throughout the year The Place brings high quality dance to hundreds of young people in Camden, across London, the South East and nationwide. We
experience on a daily basis the benefits this brings: alongside its own rewards, we see how this work contributes to the Government’s key objectives for
young people as laid out in ‘Every Child Matters’ and the Schools Sports PSA targets.
I enclose a note of potential Government actions that would bring particular benefits to young people through dance. We know that you are interested in and
support the work of The Place, and hope very much that you will be able to take this case forward to Government on our behalf.
Nigel Hinds
Executive Director
tel 020 7121 1071
cc Dance UK
STEPS TO ENHANCE THE GOVERNMENT’S SCHOOLS SPORTS STRATEGY
1. Ensure the supply of dance teachers meets demand, by increasing the number of PGCE places for teaching dance as a specialism and that PE teachers
are fully trained in all six activity areas, including dance. Further, that there is an increase in continuing professional development opportunities for specialist
dance teachers and PE teachers who wish to develop their skills.
2. Professional Development: Provide more opportunities for dance artists and companies to work in schools to increase levels of physical activity and
promote shared knowledge about dance across schools to inspire more committed engagement and enhance teachers’ understanding of how to deliver
dance.
3. Strengthen the position of dance within the physical education national curriculum to ensure its unique contribution to both young peoples’ creative and
physical education
4. Ensure the national dance organisations Youth Dance England and the National Dance Teachers’ Association are included in the consortium of
organisations running the professional development programme for the Schools Sports Strategy (alongside current members Youth Sport Trust (YST),
Association for Physical Education (afPE) and SportsCoach UK).
5. Broaden access for young people to sport and dance leadership courses to meet the Government’s Step Into Sport agenda. This aims to increase the
percentage of young people aged 14 to 19 from school sport partnerships actively involved in sports leadership and volunteering, from nine percent in 2004
to 18 percent in 2008. This will enable young people to develop their leadership skills, through and in dance, whilst also building the capacity to deliver
dance in schools through empowering young people.
6. Invest in Dance Links, (part of the Physical Education and School Sport Club Links scheme, PESSCL) led by Youth Dance England working with the
National Dance Teachers Association and the Youth Sport Trust, to provide young people with increased opportunities to enjoy dance as part of their
extended school activity, whilst building links between schools and youth dance groups increasing participation in dance activity
7. Ensure young people have the opportunity to see dance performed by incorporating it into the Education Outside the Classroom Manifesto.
THE VALUE OF DANCE
1. A new report produced by Laban and Hampshire Dance provides evidence proving dance makes children fitter. The report, produced by Laban with
Hampshire Dance, studies the effects of an eight week creative dance programme on the physiological and psychological status of 11��"14 year old
school children. In brief, the research demonstrates that physical fitness increased in all three areas assessed (lung capacity, flexibility, aerobic capacity).
This increase was statistically significant among the females.
2. The NHS National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidance on obesity for children says “encourage games that involve running around, such as skipping,
dancing or ball games”.
3. Choosing Activity: A Physical Activity Action Plan (DCMS / DoH 2005) cites community dance initiatives as one of the wide range of formal and informal
activities both in and out of school that can help ‘establish healthy behaviours from an early age and encourage enjoyable, health enhancing activity that will
be sustained through life’.