After organising the annual Hungarian School Sport Day for a decade, the Hungarian School Sport Federation (HSSF) has joined forces with 6 partners, including ISCA, to launch the first European School Sport Day. The event is planned to coincide with MOVE Week and the European Week of Sport, and the date confirmed for Hungary and Bulgaria is 25 September.

The original aim of the Hungarian School Sport Day was encourage school children to do any kind of physical exercise or sport for at least 120 minutes, and in this way raises awareness of the importance of being physically active. In 2014 it involved 200,000 students, and the initiative has thereby become the largest leisure time sport event in the country.

Organising Hungarian School Sport Day, as well as the experience it gained from participating in international initiatives such as the NowWeMOVE campaign and MOVE Week, inspired HSSF to put together an international consortium which provides European platform to promote the above goals, in order to make a European impact and involve as many students as possible.

As a result, an international group of 6 partners has been formed, including ISCA, the European Physical Education Association (EUPEA), Youth Sport Trust from United Kingdom, V4 Sport Association from Poland, and BG Be Active Association from Bulgaria.

In the frame of the one-and-a-half-year project, the partners will organise the first European School Sport Day (ESSD) in September this year. During the period of the European Week of Sport, the ESSD will happen in Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria, and the organising team welcomes other countries in Europe to join the programme as well.

The pilot programme aims to connect European schools using the promotion of a common goal, more active citizens. It specifically targets school children, the most important target group for sport and health-related policies.

The ESSD is more than a school sport day moving school children on one particular day of the year. The initiative also aims to contribute to community building and inclusion through sport and physical activity. The consortium partners are developing a methodological toolkit, which will be accessible for everyone, and which provides ideas and recommendations for organising events and exercise programmes while keeping a perspective of methodology and community-building as well.

The implementation of the project is supported by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, and ESSD is implemented in connection with European Week of Sport, in the frame of ISCA’s MOVE Week.

HSSF welcomes organisations and schools that would like to plan their own school sport day to join the pilot of the European School Sport Day. For further information, please visit the website (www.mdsz.hu/essd) or contact our colleagues at the following email address: [email protected]

Images and text: Hungarian School Sport Federation