Watch a video from the celebrations at Britannia Village Primary School
Britannia Village Primary School in Newham, East London is today confirmed as the 15,000th to participate in the Aegon Schools Tennis programme, delivered by the Tennis Foundation and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). British stars Elena Baltacha, Jonny Marray, Ade Adepitan and Andy Lapthorne were on hand to personally celebrate the landmark achievement and present the school with free resources to encourage pupils to further develop their skills.
Minister for Sport, Hugh Robertson, said: “We want to leave a tangible legacy from London 2012 with more opportunities for young people to play sport. The Aegon Schools Tennis Programme is helping to do exactly that, introducing youngsters to tennis and inspiring the next generation of Andy Murrays.”
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “Well done to everyone at Britannia Village Primary School in Newham on being the 15,000th school to take part in the Aegon Schools Tennis programme. Inspiring children to play sport is a vitally important part of the legacy of the London 2012 games and I’m delighted that the Tennis Foundation and the LTA are working with kids across London to help deliver this.
More than two million school children have been given the chance to play tennis through the programme, which has provided free resources and tennis equipment – including more than 400,000 rackets and 900,000 tennis balls. More than 26,000 teachers have been trained to deliver the programme which has been rolled out in over half the schools in Great Britain.
Adrian Grace, CEO of Aegon UK commented: “It is a fantastic achievement to be celebrating Britannia Village Primary School as the 15,000th participant of the Aegon School Tennis programme on World Tennis Day. As Lead Partner of British Tennis, we are delighted our work with the LTA and the Tennis Foundation has helped deliver tennis to more than half of all schools in Great Britain, showing our support of tennis at all levels of the game from grass roots programmes, to the development of top British players and backing world class tournaments.”
The programme was set up to promote grass-roots development by enabling more children across Great Britain to get physically active through tennis, and it has proved a hit with kids nationwide.
Britannia Village Primary School Head Teacher Linda-May Bingham said: “We are honoured to be the 15,000th school to participate in the Aegon Schools Tennis programme. This is a tremendous initiative to encourage more children to play tennis and sports at school. Our teachers are passionate about teaching the basics and hopefully this will translate into more children playing in sport.”
Geoff Newton, Executive Director of the Tennis Foundation, added: “The great thing about tennis is that it can be adapted so you can play it anywhere, whether in a school hall or a playground. What the Tennis Foundation working in conjunction with the LTA has done since 2009 is empower teachers across the country to be able to deliver tennis to their pupils in any environment so youngsters can get active and enjoy tennis. Following the success of our Aegon Schools Tennis programme, we have broadened our support to include colleges and universities as well.”
Find out more about World Tennis Day on the ITF website.
Share