St Mary’s Launches SIMMSActive to Get Students Involved in Sport

Students at St Mary’s University, Twickenham will have more opportunities to get involved in sport and activities as part of a new on-campus scheme, SIMMSActive, being launched by the University on 2^nd October 2014. The scheme comes after receiving National Lottery funding to get university students playing sport. £152,000 from Sport England’s University Sport Activation Fund will enable St Mary’s to deliver the programme over the next three years through a range of weekly recreational activities aimed at increasing student participation in sports. SIMMSActive will include a total of 11 activities for the 2014-2015 academic year and will be run by students for students. Participants can pay for the sessions each semester, monthly, yearly or on a pay as you go basis with prices starting as little as 7p a session. To celebrate, a launch event has been planned for University students of the University where they will be able to find out more about the programme or get involved in 6 of the 11 activities: Cricket, Tag Rugby, Football, Athletics, Dodgeball or Gym & Fitness. Voted as one of London’s top sporting universities, St Mary’s already offers a variety of student sports clubs and the Sport England Funding will now allow the University to expand on this. Josh Moss, Athletic Union President, commented, “The Sport England funding will allow us to develop our recreational activity offering for St Mary’s students.  The SIMMSActive programme will contribute to the health and wellbeing of the campus community, increase the student experience and allow for a number of fantastic personal development opportunities.” St Mary’s Director of Sport, Andrew Reid-Smith, added, “SIMMSActive will provide a wide range of student led sporting activities. The students helped devise the programme and we are confident that its fun and informal nature will inspire everyone to get involved.  The launch event will reflect this and give students a taster of what they can expect when they sign up.” Students will also have the opportunity to get involved in other aspects of the scheme by becoming a Programme Activator. The Activators will be responsible for ensuring that the SIMMSActive sessions are student centred, fun and safe. All Activators will receive relevant training and qualifications (Safeguarding and Child Protection Qualification and First Aid) alongside great rewards, such as free kit.