Sport Aberdeen’s Active Schools team alongside students from the University of Aberdeen, have gone above and beyond as they engage school aged children across Aberdeen in a huge variety of sports and activities, including boxing, dance and running.

Eddy Eadie and Findlay Rae from the University of Aberdeen, run a lunchtime boxing session at St Machar Academy, which has helped pupils from S1 – S6 try their hand at a sport that is not usually offered as part of the Physical Education (PE) curriculum.

Eddy and Findlay have run the session at St Machar Academy for the whole of the last academic year and have been recognised as role models, who fully embrace and include the school as part of their boxing club and wider boxing community.

Sport Aberdeen’s Active Communities Manager, Graeme Dale, said:

“Students such as Eddy and Findlay, who dedicate so much of their spare time into initiatives such as this to get children active and engaged in sport, are a huge asset to our Active Schools programme.

“The work being done is greatly appreciated by Sport Aberdeen and more importantly, by the children themselves.”

The students have also donated equipment for the school – including skipping ropes and six pairs of gloves and pads – through their own University Boxing Club, to allow the children to continue their training over the holidays and to ensure their experience of the sport is as good as possible.

Commenting on his involvement, Findlay Rae said:

“Watching the kids develop throughout the year has been great. Those coming every week have shown a massive improvement in their boxing skills and they also just seem more confident and chattier, which is amazing to see.

We had one guy who was asking us about boxing clubs here in Aberdeen and is hoping to join up outside of school and continue the sport. To have given him that opportunity and open the door to do something that could become a massive part of his life is really awesome.”

Furthermore and not content on making an impact through just one sport, Riverbank School’s morning Triathlon Club for P5 – P7’s is run by student volunteers Charlotte Benkowitz and Olivia Burridge, who have jointly run the club since last September.

The club aims to get children running in a way that encourages them to better their times and increase the number of laps they can run, through encouragement and friendly competition.

Commenting on her motivation for volunteering, Olivia said:

“We want as many people to get involved and enjoy the sport as much as we can. Volunteering allows us to share our passion for the sport with even more people and hopefully inspire them to love the sport and keep going with it even as they get older.”

Despite being in the midst of their exams, Olivia and Charlotte are planning on attending as many of the upcoming Active Schools Fun Run Series as they can to encourage and support the children.