The project was developed to help contribute to the Extended Schools outcomes and a number of wider shared objectives within the Every Child Matters framework such as; crime and disorder through the provision of diversionary activities; social inclusion through provision of free places to those in need; overcoming rural isolation through the provision of free transport links; health agenda through the provision of opportunities to increase levels of physical and mental activity.

The programme took place Monday - Friday including bank holidays during the 5 full weeks of the Cornish summer holidays. Children paid nothing to attend the activities and free transport from a variety of locations throughout the district was provided using NCDCs 15 seat minibus.

The days consisted of a centre based activity in the morning followed by an offsite activity in the afternoon. NCDC own or operate 5 leisure centres within the district all in major population centres, these 5 centres were used as a base for both transport arrangements and activity delivery. The morning activities were Power Kiting, Mountainboarding and Mountain biking and the afternoon activities were Climbing, Coasteering, Canoeing, Surfing and Mountainboarding at a dedicated centre.

Funding for the programme was sourced from NCAN and from the Coastal and Rural Extreme Sports Taskforce (CREST project) an existing fund from Sport England managed by NCDC. Other monies came form Ocean Housing NCDCs housing maintenance contractor who have provided 5 years lease payments for the extreme sports vehicle and also from many of our suppliers of kit including Kites from Flexifoil were supplied at a reduced cost.

The scheme was a huge success with attendance figures as detailed below, and with an enormous amount of feedback from both the children and their parents on the positive effects of the scheme for the participants. As a department we were particularly impressed with the success of the centre based activities such as Kite flying and Mountainboarding as we saw some real leaps in confidence as the kids gained the skills required to really get to grips with the equipment and the conditions, we will use many of these activities in other programmes and for us Kite flying will become a regular, in view of the fact that the kit is easy to transport and store, easy to set up and operate and presents a fast learning curve to the participants resulting in a fun activity that is both challenging and physical.

The kids had the opportunity to fly a range of kite sizes according to their size and ability and very quickly found that they could progress through the range to the bigger sizes.

All the kids loved the sessions and are queuing up to take part in future sessions.

Power kiting was a new activity to our department but it will become a stock activity for us throughout the year.

Paul Meadows
Coastal Recreation Officer
North Cornwall District Council