As announced earlier in the year, The LEGO Group is powering the Youth Sport Trust’s Girls Active programme in primary schools, which seeks to address a number of the barriers girls face to being physically active.

The partnership comes following research by The LEGO Group showing how a pressure of perfection risks holding girls back from reaching their full creative potential. Meanwhile, recent Youth Sport Trust research has highlighted the deepening crisis girls face when they hit puberty, and the increasing impact of this on their physical activity levels and wellbeing throughout their teenage years and into adulthood.

Together, The LEGO Group and the Youth Sport Trust are calling on the Government to help girls get active by:

• Elevating opportunities for play and physical activity by increasing opportunities for creative play and sport in schools through PE, in breakfast and sports clubs, and at break times.
• Listening to girls and empowering them to make choices about kit to wear and how activities are delivered that builds their confidence.
• Training teachers in tackling gender stereotypes and educating around body confidence and female biology.

Whilst taking part in activities including a bean bag toss game and a build-a-duck challenge, MPs including the Minister for Sport Stephanie Peacock, and Caroline Dinenage, who chairs the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, heard about the challenges holding girls back from taking part in play and sport, and how those can be addressed.

It was great to have so many positive conversations with MPs about how we can get girls active, including through current opportunities such as the Curriculum and Assessment Review, and the roll out of free breakfast clubs in primary schools.

We look forward to building on the momentum and continuing to work with The LEGO Group to push for change and break down barriers to opportunity, so every girl has access to high quality creative play and sport.