Rackets Cubed
Rackets Cubed
The Elliot Foundation has been working with sports charity, Rackets Cubed, since 2019. Through this partnership we have brought together our two organisations to unite our values and visions in aid of the advancement of children’s education and physical development.
Rackets Cubed is a UK registered Charity that runs integrated Squash, Tennis, Education and Nutrition Programmes for local inner-city children. The programme’s vision is driven by the increasing evidence that active children have higher school achievement and that nutritious foods improve classroom behaviour. There are a number of factors which have been shown to adversely affect a child’s learning and development (from NHS Wandsworth) and these range from:
- A child’s long term health and fitness is adversely affected by being overweight which in turn impacts learning and development in children.
- Disadvantaged children are less likely to participate in physical activity outside of school.
- Self-esteem, participation and confidence are all important factors in a child’s school attainment as well as their quality of life. Obesity can adversely affect all of these things and it is thought that poor self-esteem may be a reason for decreased attainment in obese children.
- Nutrition and physical activity interventions in schools tend to have the biggest impact in populations with a high prevalence of disadvantage
The work of Rackets Cubed is focused on improving the chances of children in educational settings. A study stated that half of all UK seven-year-olds do not do enough exercise, with girls far less active than boys. University College London researchers found just 51% of the 6,500 children they monitored achieved the recommended hour of physical activity each day. For girls, the figure was just 38%, compared with 63% for boys. Half of the group also spent more than six hours being sedentary each day, although some of this would be spent in class, the researchers acknowledged.
We realised that there was a direct link between our work and that of Rackets Cubed and we decided to join forces to give children from inner cities and deprived areas the opportunity to fulfil their academic potential, improve their physical and mental health and to aim high in all aspects of their daily lives. The program focuses on improving classroom achievement, learning a new sporting skill and being active and works to achieve clear goals.
We are pleased to have been working with Rackets Cubed and Fareshare over the last few months.
Fareshare donate a variety of foods to our school that we have then been able to share with many of our families. We receive the donations every other Tuesday.
If you feel you would benefit from this opportunity, please do get in touch with our school office. Please ensure you let us know by the Monday before the delivery on the Tuesday.