Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) is delighted to announce the return of Move it Boom, the physical activity competition for primary school children across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, for 2022.

The competition gets underway on Monday the 3rd of October and will run until Wednesday the 30th of November 2022. The winning schools will be announced in early December 2022.

The award-winning competition encourages children to get up, get active and log the physical activities they complete to be in with a chance of winning a great prize for their school.

As children log their physical activities via the Move it Boom website, they earn new parts for the virtual robot avatar; the more physically active they are, the more advanced their robot becomes and the more points they earn for their school.

At the end of the competition, the best performing schools will win a great prize from one of the local partners on board to support Move it Boom. These include Leicester City in the Community, ME Sports in the Community, Leicester Tigers, Leicester Riders, Leicestershire County Cricket Club, Fox Soccer Academy and Loughborough Sport. Prizes on offer include in-school coaching sessions from professional coaches and tickets to see local sports teams, including Leicester City Women.

Sarah Tebbett, Digital Clinical Lead at LPT said: "After Move it Boom 2021, which was the most successful yet with more schools taking part and more activities logged than ever before, we are delighted to welcome the competition back this year.

It's a great opportunity for the whole school community to get together behind a great initiative and have fun being physically active. It can really help the children understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle and being active too."

This year, Raising Health, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust's charity, has partnered with Move it Boom to raise vital funds to support children and young people with mental health conditions. 

The charity is raising money to buy new sensory equipment for The Beacon, an in-patient mental health facility for children and young people. 

Carolyn Pascoe of Raising Health said: "We know that using sensory equipment contributes to the recovery of young people and children with mental health conditions by improving learning, relaxation and communication. We would like to make sure that we are doing all we can to support our young people on their recovery journey,"

Schools are being encouraged to complete a 'Move it Boom Mile' around their playground or allow pupils to attend school in sports kit for a voluntary donation of £1 towards the appeal.

Leicester City in the Community will support Move It Boom 2022 by promoting the programme in each of their partner primary schools via assembly content and hope to create ambassadors for the programme in each school to help promote a culture of being active.

Leicester City in the Community Primary Stars Coordinator, Glenn Short said: "We at Leicester City in the Community are excited and proud to partner with Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust through Move it Boom. We are looking forward to seeing some incredible robot avatars and are confident this will encourage children in our 18 partner schools to take part." 

Last year's winning school, Latimer Primary School in Anstey, will be competing again to hold on to the Move it Boom crown. Kamini Broome, Active Schools Sports Leader said: "It felt amazing to win Move it Boom last year. All the children really enjoyed getting active and building their robots. We can't wait to do it all again."

Can a Rutland-based primary school do what it takes to be in with a chance of winning this year?

If you are getting involved, get in touch by emailing [email protected].