Nearly 120 delegates attended the 'Eyes Wide Open' conference on 17 September to discuss education through sport.
The Glasgow Active Schools programme, part of the 24m Scotland-wide Active Schools strategy, aims to improve children's health and well-being and increase their attainment levels at school.
The Glasgow programme will be delivered to both primary and secondary schools by a number of full and part-time Active School Co-ordinators.
Primary schools will be served by 31 full-time co-ordinators who will each develop activities at a small cluster of schools, such as sport, dance and outdoor adventure. They will encourage active play in school playgrounds, and promote walking and cycling to school.
Co-ordinators will also recruit older pupils to support and lead younger children in active games and develop leadership skills within schools.
Particular emphasis will be placed on increasing sports participation among groups that are traditionally under-represented and least active. These groups are girls, children from ethnic minority communities, children with physical and learning disabilities, and young people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Sportscotland is the driving force behind the appointment of Active School Co-ordinators. Neil Campion, partnership manager at sportscotland, said, 'The basic role of Active School Co-ordinators is to be as inclusive as possible. All children will be encouraged to take part in physical activities, not just those who are good at sport.
'The co-ordinators are not working to replace physical education in schools, but to expand what's on offer through providing physical activity opportunities outside the curriculum. This includes organising after-school activity clubs and holiday programmes.'
Mr Campion added, 'Sometimes developments in physical activity for children in their early years are not addressed as well as those for older children.
Part of the co-ordinator's role is to encourage and introduce more physical activity opportunities for P1 to P3 children.'
Councillor James Coleman, deputy leader of Glasgow City Council, said, 'These new co-ordinators will allow us to bring about real improvements to the health and physical activity levels of Glasgow's young people. We have a total investment package of 1.5m per annum. This gives us a great start to turning around the worrying sedentary lifestyles facing our children today.'
Deputy health minister Tom McCabe said, 'We are taking action on a number of fronts to turn the tide of poor health. The recruitment of active schools co-ordinators across Glasgow is vitally important in our drive to deliver more health promoting schools to help to change Scotland's couch-potato culture for good. Glasgow's Active School Co-ordinators will be one of the biggest team of co-ordinators in Scotland, and I'm sure that pupils across the city will reap the benefits.'
Scotland's Active Schools programme is funded by the Scottish Executive and has been developed by sportscotland. The programme is being rolled out in Scotland's 32 local authorities to coincide with the start of the new school year.
The Glasgow programme has been created through a partnership between the Scottish Executive, sportscotland, Glasgow City Council and the Greater Glasgow Health Board.