Girls Active Programme - Sligo Sport and Recreation Partnership

Findings
Fig.7 - General Impacts of Girls Active
to group the words under five main headings:
• The vast majority of girls (85%) provided
words relating to ‘fun’, ‘enjoyment’, having a
‘laugh’ and the ‘craic’.
• A high proportion (49%) utilised words
referring to getting ‘exercise’ and getting ‘fit’,
being ‘active’, ‘energetic’ and ‘healthy’.
• The third most frequent reference was to the
‘exciting’, ‘new’, ‘different’, ‘challenging’ and
‘stimulating’ experience of Girls Active (25%
of respondents).
• Smaller but notable proportions also referred
to the social aspects of the programme
(‘friends’, ‘new people’, ‘inclusive’, 14%) and to
the feel-good factor generated (‘confidence’,
‘feeling good’, ‘feeling happy’, ‘self-esteem’,
12%).
(48% agreed or strongly agreed) there was none
in relation to studying better or to taking on more
leadership roles (all had a median value of ‘neither
disagree nor agree’).
4.1.12 Overall Satisfaction Levels
More than half the girls rated their satisfaction with
Girls Active as ‘excellent’ and another third rated
it as ‘good’, making a total of 90% who gave a
positive overall rating to the programme (Fig. 8).
Fig.8 - Overall Satisfaction Levels with Girls Active
4.2 Case Studies
Three participating schools, one each from counties
Leitrim, Sligo and Donegal, were selected as case
studies and visited by the researcher in January
2006. All of the schools are co-educational, located
in rural towns and of reasonable size in terms of
student numbers (374-440 pupils).
In each case separate interviews were carried out
with the co-ordinating teacher and principal and
focus group discussions were held with some of
the students who participated in Girls Active during
the 2004/5 school year. A total of 33 girls took part
in the focus groups (10 from school A, 11 from
school B and 12 from school C).
4.2.1 School A
“I always say, ‘Enjoy yourselves’, not, ‘Be good’“
(Co-ordinator)
At the end of the questionnaire respondents were
asked to list three words to describe what Girls
Active meant to them. In response, many very
positive words were included, such as ‘worthwhile’,
‘cool’, ‘brilliant’ and ‘excellent’, while negative
comments were extremely scarce. It was possible
Background. School A first participated in Girls
Active in Phase Two (2004/5) and continued to
take part in Phase Three (2005/6). The principal
stated that he “jumped at the idea” since school
management had “always tried to involve non-sporty
students in physical activity”, but this had hitherto
proved to be a difficult task. The co-ordinating
Evaluation of the Girls Active Programme - 2003 – 2005 Report 15