Badminton festival at the Allander proves to be big hit with youngsters

At the event, backed by BADMINTON Scotland, pupils from Torrance, Westerton and Colquhoun Primary Schools were put through their paces by EDLC Active Schools’ Catriona Shields and her team.

On top of that 11 primary teachers took part in the teacher training career-long professional learning (CLPL) session which ran alongside the festival and was delivered by Mary McLean.

The teachers were trained on how to deliver fun, active and inclusive badminton activities with the aim to provide staff with both the content and confidence to deliver badminton within their own school PE badminton lessons and after-school badminton clubs.

Catriona organised and ran the festival in conjunction with BADMINTONscotland while Andrew Bannerman and Graeme Campbell provided support.

Eight Young Sport Leaders from Boclair Academy helped with the delivery of festival activities and Liz Carver and Bob Ullah were lead mentors as well as BADMINTONscotland staff on each of the courts.

BADMINTONscotland Chief Executive Anne Smillie and new TOTAL BWF World Championship 2017 mascot Nettie were there to watch and support the children, who took part in a variety of activities designed to give them the opportunity to experience badminton as well as to test their key skills required for the sport – agility, balance, co-ordination, speed and stamina.

The children also received information on local badminton clubs in the Bearsden and Milngavie area.

Ms Smillie said: “It was wonderful to see the children enjoying themselves so much and taking to badminton so quickly.

“But it was also encouraging to see the teachers wanting to get involved through the workshop. Part of our World Championships legacy plan is to get more and more schoolchildren playing badminton but we need teachers involved to help achieve this goal.”

For details of the next Big Hit Festival, contact Regional Development Officer West Euan Murray at [email protected]