I’m thrilled to see our innovative Learn Play Grow children’s activity programme spreading across Great Britain – we now have owners and managers in England, Scotland and Wales. This means that we can have a positive effect on many thousands of children’s lives through sport and exercise.

One of the subjects that Elena and I used to talk about all of the time was how we could design and deliver a multi-sport programme. Just before we both retired, we were working hard on this idea – and we managed to link up with a Russian sports company who agreed to arrange for groups of Russian athletes to visit us in Ipswich to focus on tennis and football training led by Sergei, Bally’s father. Sergei of course once played for Dynamo Kiev and has also represented his country, Russia, as an international sports player.

It’s exciting to see that the plans Elena and I had are now starting to come to fruition through our exciting LPG PE education programme. We are now really happy to be offering this exciting opportunity to hundreds of schools across our Learn Play Grow network.

What is the LPG PE Education Programme?

Our programmes are not just focused on specific football, tennis, netball, or rugby skills. We wanted to pass on more transferable skills, teaching children how to focus, concentrate, and all about the commitment and discipline involved in sport. Of course, the great thing is that all of these skills can equally be applied to life beyond sport.

Our PE Provision programme aims to help and support our schools through:

• After School Clubs
• Lunch Time Clubs
• PPA cover
• Sports leaders training
• Staff education
• Sports days
• Physical development tracking

All of the above areas are aspects of our industry that Elena and I were very excited and passionate about, and our expansion into school PE provision isn’t just about growing our network but it’s also about representing Elena’s legacy – which I have the role of nurturing and protecting and developing.