Youth Sports Trust

Youth Sport Trust:

The Youth Sport Trust (YST) is a children’s charity founded in 1995 to harness the power of play and sport in children’s education and development. Its vision is for every child to enjoy the life changing benefits of play and sport along with their mission to equip educators and empower young people to build bright futures.

Sport gives young people a platform to have their voice heard and a place to feel they belong. YST harness this extraordinary power to change young lives today and help them build a brighter tomorrow.

YST do this by: Running inclusive and innovative programmes, Bringing together communities of educators, Providing practical tools and resources. In 2022 they launched their new strategy, Inspiring changemakers, building belonging, in which they set out their mission up until 2035: Starting locally and building momentum, to galvanise and inspire changemakers to transform attitudes, improve practice and drive policy change. Together we will harness the power of play and sport to build belonging for a generation, improving their health, fostering inclusion and developing character and leadership.

This strategy has three objectives. By taking urgent action now to build back healthier, happier, more resilient young people, we will establish an evidence base to drive a generational shift and ultimately achieve societal change by 2035.

Our PE Coordinator, Nathan Rickard, has also been awarded the role of PE CatalYST by the Youth Sports Trust.

PE catalYSTs:

PE catalYSTs are one group of YST’s advocacy network whose purpose is to connect, align and build alliances across the education sector to grow a movement that champions the role of PE, school sport and physical activity in improving wellbeing and raising standards in schools.

The role of CatalYSTs (Primary PE, School Sport and physical activity leaders and secondary PE teachers) are to lead the future direction of our subject, and support the Youth Sport Trust mission of ensuring every child enjoys the life changing benefits that come from PE, sport, physical activity and play by:

• Communicating the reality of the challenges facing schools in relation to the PE, sport and physical activity landscape
• Evaluating current support to schools
• Advising and testing solutions that would support schools in line with PE, school sport and physical activity focus
• Championing within their own context, the value and purpose of PE, sport and physical activity against whole school agendas
• Advocating locally and nationally the impact of their/YST’s work on schools and young people’s wellbeing, leadership and achievement
• Influencing colleagues, senior leaders and key strategies at local and national levels by connecting agendas and sharing best practice