By Laura Clark

Last updated at 4:33 AM on 26th June 2010

Competitive games are to be revived in schools in a bid to turn Britain back into a nation of sporting champions.

As the country holds its breath over the World Cup and Wimbledon, ministers want their new 'School Olympics' programme to end the culture of 'prizes for all'.

The sports championships are intended to give every child experience of hard-fought competition. 

Will to win: The new initiative will restore competitive spirit

Will to win: The 'School Olympics' programme will restore competitive spirit

They will reverse a decline in competitive sport brought about by Left-wing councils that scorned it as 'elitist' and insisted on politically correct activities with no winners or losers.

The competitions will involve a wide range of sports including football, rugby, netball, golf, cricket, tennis, athletics, judo, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, cycling and volleyball.

Schools will be able to nominate any sport in any age group as long as they can find opponents.

Details of the championships will be unveiled on Monday, hard on the heels of a weekend of sporting drama with England playing old rivals Germany in the World Cup tomorrow and Andy Murray today vying for a spot in Wimbledon's fourth round.

As they launch the initiative, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Education Secretary Michael Gove will say it is intended to ensure the 2012 London Olympics leave a lasting sporting legacy.

A sporting chance: Details of the Conservative plans to produce a nation of sporting champions will be unveiled as Andy Murray and Wayne Rooney fight to win Wimbledon and the World Cup respectively

The first championship will take place in the run-up to the 2012 Games with further competitions planned beyond that. Paralympic-style events will be staged in parallel for youngsters with disabilities.

Mr Hunt said: 'I want to give a real boost to competitive sport in schools using the power of hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games to encourage young people – whatever age or ability – to take part in this new competition.

'Sport – whether you win or lose – teaches young people great lessons for life. It encourages teamwork, dedication and striving to be the best that you can be.'

Steve Grainger, chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust, said: 'Competition has been happening on an ad hoc school to school basis since the demise of district-level sport.

'It was down to schools to sort something out with another school which is maybe a utopian view of how it might happen.

'We have built up a network of 450 school sport partnerships with every school locked in so we now have a really solid base from which to develop competitive sport up to 2012 and lever off the back of 2012 to enable every kid in the country to have a suitable competitive experience in a whole range of sports.'

Schools will compete against each other in district leagues from 2011 with winning athletes and teams qualifying for up to 60 county finals.

The most talented budding sports stars will then be selected for national finals – although this currently covers England only.

Lottery funding of up to £10million a year, distributed by Sport England, will be used to create a new sports league structure for primary and secondary schools, culminating in the 2012 finals.

But ministers also hope the championships will reinvigorate PE lessons, within-school tournaments and local leagues. Schools will be expected to host in-house Olympic-style sports days so that children of all abilities have the opportunity to compete and join teams.

The coalition government plans to publish information about schools' sporting facilities and the amount of sport and competitive sport they provide for pupils.

There would also be school sports league tables, so parents can track the success of their children's schools' sports results.

Mr Gove said: 'We need to revive competitive sport in our schools. Fewer than a third of school pupils take part in regular competitive sport within schools, and fewer than one in five take part in regular competition between schools. 'The School Olympics give us a chance to change that for good.'

Ministers hope the initiative will finally end a culture that has seen schools refuse to pit youngsters directly against each other.

In one directive to schools during the last Labour government, schools were encouraged to replace competitive races with 'problem-solving' exercises for their sports days.

Teams were also encouraged to perform tasks in rotation rather than compete directly with each other.

A series of Labour initiatives aimed at reviving competitive sport were undermined by the continued sell-off of school playing fields.

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below, or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have not been moderated.

The Conservatives stopped funding for sports in schools when they were last in power. The best we had done in the Olympics for years was during the Labour government. Why is there so much propaganda in the press in favour of the obvious Conservative lies. Anybody with any sense can look up anything the Conservatives say to see that it's all hypocritical lies.
- Jane Simms, Oxford, 26/6/2010 3:05
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Look on the bright side, if there was ever a sports day which included a'Sour Grapes' race .. you would be up there with the best of them !

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Allowances have to be made for Labour, they have fostered a loser wins ethos. The bigger the loser, the bigger the win! - Prescott, Brown, and the ultimate, the gold medal standard - a seat in the Lords, 'Lost your seat old boy?' No matter get yourself off down the tailors - ermine is all the rage!

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Excellent news. This without a doubt the best start of any government this 54 year old has witnessed. In my day at school competetiveness in every area was encouraged and rewarded. I excelled at sport but struggled academically. I've never really worked out why kids are supposed to be all equal on the sports field, life isn't like that so why lull them into a fasle sense of security. The workplace and life generally is a competetive place and winning and losing and handling both is a life skill. Well done David C and Nick C..I'm loving this coalition and as a true blue right of centre tory never thought I'd say that!

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I once hated school sports until I got into athletics, and in particular, rugby, which I greatly enjoyed. A good PE teacher won't make fun of children, they will find them something they CAN do, and then the child - like me - will enjoy sports even if one doesn't become an olympic athelete.

It wasn't just winning that was fun, but just enjoying playing the game. I wasn't great at Rugby, but loved every minute, beacuse I had friends and made the effort to join in instead of being sidelined into loneliness. Didn't matter to me that I never got further in athletics than district champion, it was just that my PE teacher didn't bully me for being fat, but found me something I actually could do, which encouraged me to take far more exercise. And although I'm now disabled, I look back on those days with much joy, and I've since found others things I CAN do, despite being ill. Don't bully weak kids, encourage them!

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I wish they did something like that in the states.

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Blimey, it does appear to be getting better back in Blighty.

Still a long way to go though, 13 horrific years of socialist mis-rule, is an awful lot of ruination and damage to correct.

I can only imagine the sandal wearing beared ones, along with the Health & Safety brigade will be on full 'battle alert' over this one ... children having fun, children allowed to be children, its all good healthy stuff granted, but i just can't see the lefty righteous droids and the Health & Safety Borgs allowing this 'dissent' ! whatever next they must be wondering ... people living there own lifes as they see fit, and not how they are told to by the Socialist control freaks ....

I will believe it, when i see it .

I attended a childrens school day last week, it was really hot, the kidscould actulay be photographed by there parents without being made to feel like Peodophiles , much fun and laughter .. and there was a beer tent ! i kid you not .. now cue ..... righteous fainting?

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