More than 1,000 primary pupils from across Aberdeen got the day out the classroom yesterday to take part in a huge sports festival.
The Aberdeen Youth Games programme, launched in 2013, encourages children to learn about new sports and teaches them about healthy lifestyles.
The event at the Aberdeen Sports Village was packed with kids from 38 schools from around Aberdeen taking part in basketball, hockey, athletics, tennis and badminton.
The project is a partnership between Robert Gordon University and Sport Aberdeen and is supported by First Bus and Sir Ian Wood’s the Wood Foundation.
Sir Ian helped the project get off its feet with a £10,000 donation earlier this year through the Wood Foundation.
Yesterday he said: “Most schools don’t have their own internal sports programmes, or a gym period as we used to call it, once a week.
“So all these youngsters have now been exposed to sports they’ve never been near before, we’ve got youngsters playing badminton, basketball, there’s a whole range of different sports, about 12 in total.
“The key thing is ensuring that youngsters are exposed to sports, but also letting them know they don’t need to be the winner, they don’t need to be on the first team, it’s all about participation and improving yourself.
“Sports is very much character forming, it has a very large impact on young people, and of course it’s also great for your own health and wellbeing.”
Sir Ian said he was delighted the project had been so successful, and that he hoped it would be rolled out across Scotland.
Scottish health, wellbeing and sport secretary Shona Robinson said: “The important message is about young people being active, and this is a great showcase for that.
“The health benefits are huge, if we can get children active we know that they’re more likely to stay active later on in life, and the benefits of that for the NHS are really, really important.
“I was talking to Sir Ian earlier about looking to perhaps roll this out to other parts of the country, because I think it’s a good model for other areas of Scotland to follow.”