High Peak school children given chance to compete against Australian peers

Schoolchildren around the High Peak will be able to measure their times against their Australian peers.

An innovative project which will see school children from the High Peak area test themselves against their Australian peers has been launched.

The High Peak School and Sport Partnership virtual scheme gives pupils from Year 3 to 11 the chance to pit their skills against equally matched competitors from the state of Victoria.

Organisers hope the scheme will grow into something bigger to tie into the Birmingham Commonwealth Games of 2022 and involve other countries.

Dawn Richardson, Partnership Development Manager for the partnership, said: “We’re so pleased to get this link established, it’s the culmination of over 12 months’ work.

“We hope the young people, with the support of their families, friends, clubs and schools will take up this challenge and let's show the Aussies what we're made of.

“It will foster competition and exercise and it is about getting more people more active.

“It is all about enjoying being active and how that makes you feel. Health and wellbeing is really important right now and we hope that plenty of people will get involved.

“Clubs can get involved across the area and we want to run other events, but it depends on how this runs - so we need it to be successful so we can do more.

“What we wanted to do was get the practicalities sorted first, but being a partnership we are looking at ways to do cross curricular things, so maybe they can use different skills to get to know the people they are competing against.

“It opens up a lot of potential opportunities for people who get involved. Anyone can get involved.

“The area we live in lends itself to cross country and outdoor sport and we hope to get a lot of interest.”

The first event will be cross-country and will feature a variety of categories to enter including walking, a mix of walking and running and running with different distances.

It follows the recent success of the Partnership’s virtual school competitions.

For further information, or to submit results, visit https://www.activederbyshire.org.uk/high-peak-vs-australia

The deadline for taking part is November 2.

Visit www.buxtonadvertiser.co.uk for more sport.