Boxing boost to help children in Sheffield schools to build confidence

Money has been awarded by Dr Alan Billings, South Yorkshire police and crime commissioner, to Sheffield City Boxing Club, so it can continue working with city schools.

The club, which is based at the old Sharrow Junior School in Sharrow, was awarded the funding pre-coronavirus to develop the ‘engagement through boxing’ project.

The club already has good links with education and a number of schools regularly use the club and the sport of boxing either as a new activity or more recently as part of pupils GCSEs in physical education.

The ‘engagement through boxing’ project has already seen pupils from Meadowhead and Norfolk Park’s Heritage Park schools attending sessions at the gym.

Brendan Warburton, head coach, said: “We are really pleased with the award and that the police and crime commissioner has seen the benefits that the sport of boxing can bring to some young people.“

The project was set up as a way of using boxing as a tool to help engage with some hard to reach pupils.

Mr Warburton said: “It may be that the pupils are struggling with mainstream education in some way, have low self esteem, or are in danger of falling out of education all together.

“ If that happens, it can have a knock-on effect for society as young people without an education can easily get involved in crime or anti-social behaviour.

“The longer that goes on, the harder it is to break that cycle, so the project was set up as an early intervention and to engage with the young people.

“We hope that through structured boxing and personal development sessions at the gym we can help raise a pupils self esteem, give them some discipline, make them more resilient and respectful, but ultimately get them back into mainstream education.”

Though the Covid-19 outbreak, the club has put a hold on everything, but it is hoped it can pick up where it left off when it is safe to do so and organisers are looking for more schools to get involved with the project.

For more information visit the club’s Facebook page or call 07791 301984.

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