The role of a Young Ambassador is to motivate and inspire more young people to engage in sport and physical activity through various environments such as within schools, clubs and local communities.

Young Ambassadors help to promote extracurricular activities, connect with community sport opportunities, foster healthy competition, celebrate student achievements, offer leadership opportunities and enhance physical education in schools.

In doing so, they significantly contribute to creating a positive culture of sport and physical activity participation and development.

Cults Academy Latest

In September, Cults Academy Young Ambassadors (YAs) in S3 took a proactive approach to engage with local girls in their community, sparking an initiative that not only encouraged physical activity, but also empowered young females. The focus was to celebrate Scottish Women & Girls in Sport week by visiting the feeder primary schools to coordinate and deliver various activities.

Empowering Young Girls

At each primary school – Cults, Culter and Miltimber – the girls were invited to participate in a lunchtime girls-only session to get involved in dance workouts and dodgeball. The YAs were empowered to design the classes on their own, organising their own dance routine and making their own dodgeball ruleset.

Additionally, the YAs took the opportunity to have some short discussions with the pupils, highlighting the importance of sport and physical activity for girls and emphasising values such as fair play, leadership, and helping others.

Recognising Excellence

To create a sense of achievement at the sessions, the YAs encouraged the girls to nominate a dodgeball “Girl of the Day”. This helped them to think about fair play, team work and positive camaraderie. 

Impressive Participation

The initiative saw an impressive turnout, with over 100 P5 and P6 girls actively participating in the lunchtime sessions. The success of the programme was evident as one enthusiastic P6 participant exclaimed: “Can we do that again tomorrow?!”

Building on Success

Following on from the success of these activities, the YAs have put together an after school Active Girls Festival planned for later in the year. The goal of the festival will be to continue the fantastic work that the YAs have done so far, as well as reaching more pupils from other age groups.

John Dixon, Lead Active Schools Coordinator for Cults ASG and Orchard Brae, said: “It was great to see the girls-only lunchtime events prove so popular!”; “Katie and Lara, our Young Ambassadors at Cults Academy, did a great job organising and running the events and we’re looking forward to the upcoming Active Girls Festival to build on the success.”