Sports as a bridge to new opportunities

Around sixty children of foreign origin will get to know sports next school year

Skarðshlíðarskóli, Hraunvallaskóli and Hvaleyrarskóli have, during the past school year, been in discussion with the sports clubs in the neighbourhoods and Jóna Rán Pétursdóttir, a prevention officer for the City of Hafnarfjörður, to find out how to increase the participation of children of foreign origin in sports. Also attending the meetings were Brúarsmiðir, cultural liaisons at the city's education and public health department. Ingibjörg Magnúsdóttir, head teacher of Skarðshlíðarskóli, told us about the project called The bridge to sports.  „Representatives from the sports clubs came to the three schools and gave presentations to the children. A leaflet about the sports clubs in the area was prepared and distributed to the pupils, as we are trying to find ways to reach this group. These three primary schools have a high proportion of pupils of foreign origin,“ says Ingibjörg.  

They then wanted to go even further than just discussing these matters and therefore applied for a grant from the education fund when it was advertised. „In this project, it's too ambitious to try and include all the sports clubs in the neighbourhood. Therefore, we decided to work with Haukarnir and see how the project would go. We are running this in conjunction with the schools“ after-school clubs, for children in Years 1 to 4. The reason is that if we reach them at such a young age, there is a greater chance that they will continue with the training,“ she says, adding that Kristinn Guðlaugsson, head teacher of Hvaleyrarskóli, and Lars Imsland, head teacher of Hraunvallaskóli, are overseeing the project. 

„These children, like all others, have all sorts of talents.“

„We want a higher proportion of students of foreign origin to take up sport, to get them active and to be in an Icelandic language environment for a greater part of the day. Some, for example, are not in our after-school club and we want to make it easier for them to adapt to Icelandic society and for them to feel that they have the opportunity to play sports. All children benefit from exercise.“ 

All the sports that Haukar offers will be introduced to these children on six occasions this autumn, and then again next spring, after which the children can attend training sessions if they feel like it. „These children, like all others, have all sorts of talents and strengths and can perhaps be given the chance to flourish in sport. We have seen it in other things that are done here at the school, for example, through music, where children who have never touched an instrument have mastered it in a short space of time.“ says Ingibjörg.  

The grant will be used to pay the coaches' wages and to provide a bus to take the children to and from school. This will take place at the time when the children would normally be in after-school club or going home. „We are expecting this to be around 20 children from each school, as it will take several coaches to accommodate such a large group and introduce them to the sports. The introductions will take place at the Haukahús before the general training sessions begin during the day. If they then want to stay on and join a general training session, that's welcome too. The aim is to have this all finalised and ready for the autumn. We need to present this well to the parents, as they need to be on our side and allow the children to attend.“  Ingibjörg says, extremely optimistic.

In recent weeks and in the coming weeks, interviews with grantee from the Hafnarfjörður Education Fund be published on the media channels of the City of Hafnarfjörður. This gives residents and other interested parties the opportunity to gain a deeper insight into the excellent projects and creative school and leisure activities.