§ Dr. KumarTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what action she has taken to encourage schools to set up girls' rugby and football teams with trained coaches. [16266]
§ Mr. CabornThe Government have initiated a number of programmes aimed at encouraging and enabling schools to offer a wider range of sporting opportunities318W for their pupils. They give all pupils the opportunity to achieve high standards and those with the greatest potential the opportunity to excel at their chosen sport. The 1,000 School Sport Co-ordinators who will be in place by 2004 will have funding for, among other things, bringing sport specific coaches into schools to coach pupils and for building school-club links. Also, Specialist Sports Colleges are funded to provide the lead in innovative practice sharing resources and expertise to achieve high standards. Coaching for Teachers is a joint initiative funded by Sport England and coordinated by sports coach UK, it provides teachers involved in out-of-school-hours activities with low-cost coaching courses. Coaching for Teachers delivers governing body courses in both rugby union and football. Awards for All is a lottery-funded programme focused at four priority groups, one of those being girls and women and provides awards of up to £5,000. These awards can be used to develop out-of-hour learning opportunities. eg training courses for coaches or the hiring of coaches, in schools that preferably link with the local community.