Reader's letter - Sheffield City Trust does great work

We are aware that due to the Covid-19 restrictions, the organisation has had a number of large decisions to make regarding venues and also staffing etc.

However, we would like to add that as ever, SIV/SCT has supported the development of opportunities to support children and young people across schools as well as within its local communities.

We would like to thank you for your support and engagement at what has been a very tricky time for the sector and it is amazing to see staff out working in the cities foodbanks, supporting key workers and vulnerable children in schools, delivering and developing Healthy Holiday programmes and generally supporting the work of all key partners across the city to get people moving.

Having personally worked across a number of districts in Yorkshire, both South and West, I am astounded at the community outreach work that takes place in Sheffield led by SIV and its programme and development team. We have worked across a number of years with a range of staff who have provided opportunities for Sheffield's children and young people to become active and have seen projects impact thousands of pupils. This would simply not be possible without the help of the staff and the venues.

The support in the venues themselves to allow us to run a successful School Games programme of activities for more than 120 Sheffield schools is fantastic, and we simply would not be able to run the programmes that we do without the hard work of the development team and also the hardworking staff at the venues that we use.

Events from swimming galas for non-swimmers at Ponds Forge, to our flagship Partnership Games ensure our schools continue to support our services and this partnership work is essential in maintaining the engagement from schools and pupils that we have achieved.

We run events at Concord, English Institute Of Sport Sheffield, Ice Sheffield and Ponds Forge and see thousands of children taking part in activity every year that they would otherwise not have the chance to engage within.

I believe we have delivered more than 50 school events in the last full academic year within SIV venues and love to see Sheffield pupils being inspired to continue their love for physical activity and sport.

We also work with staff on outreach programmes within the schools themselves, as well as the local community, trying to drive opportunities for the children of Sheffield as well as increasing participation in sport and physical activity.

The programme and development team are always on hand to help and to try and support community partners from all sectors cross the city and are engaged at both delivery and strategic levels, to offer support and guidance.

These programmes have included swimming lessons for children on free school meals, development of new sports teams, engagement in gymnastics, trampolining and ice skating projects as well as many more.

It is fantastic to have the support of the city's leisure providers in helping us to tackle inequalities in children's health and wellbeing.

We are extremely happy to see that some venues are starting to reopen with the newly named Sheffield City Trust and hope we can continue our close partnership work moving forward.

We appreciate that these times are extremely hard for all involved. However, we felt we needed to ensure that there is some positivity at this time, by shining a light on all of the fantastic work the trust undertakes throughout the year, both in the venues themselves as well as within the most hard to reach communities across the city.

We look forward to the reopening of Ponds Forge when it is viable to do so as this venue is huge for the children of the city in inspiring the next generation of swimmers and divers.

The impact that this venue has on the number of pupils undertaking school swimming is phenomenal and Sheffield having this venue to use for school competitions, galas and county finals is a real boost for the city.

We have recently engaged in the school swimming development group and created school projects with Sheffield Diving and cannot wait until we can signpost people back to the venue again when possible.

As we embark on a new academic year and gladly see children return to school we will need to ensure physical activity, both in school and outside of school, remains a priority for their physical, social and emotional wellbeing and I cannot wait to work with SCT in whatever capacity we can to help to try and tackle these issues together for the good of Sheffield children where we can.

Adam Fuller, Arches School Sport Partnership sports development

manager and School Games organiser, Forge Valley School, Stannington