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 2021.

The competition gets underway on Monday 4 October and will run until 17 December 2021. The winning schools will be announced in early January 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.

This is the fifth time that the Move it Boom competition has run, with the plan for 2021’s campaign to be the biggest yet, with more primary schools taking part and more physical activities being logged by children than ever before.

As children log their activities via the Move it Boom website (leicester.moveitboom.co.uk), 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 Riders, Leicestershire County Cricket Club, Fox Soccer Academy, Loughborough University and All Play Solutions. Prizes on offer include coaching sessions from professional coaches, up to £1000 worth of thermoplastic line markings for school playgrounds, tickets to watch Leicester City Women at the King Power Stadium and much more.

Sarah Tebbett, Quality Lead for School Nursing at LPT said: “We’re delighted to be able to bring Move it Boom back this year as it’s a great way for schools to promote healthy lifestyles, help them understand the importance of being active and of course have fun.

We’ve got our fingers crossed that as many primary school pupils as possible will take part and it will be an exciting competition as we see which schools come out on top.”

The launch event will take place on Wednesday 29th September between 1pm and 3pm at Launde Primary School in Oadby.*

The Move It Boom team will be joined by a team of coaches from Leicester City in the Community, as well as club mascot Filbert Fox and Leicester City legend Steve Walsh. Pupils will take part in a series of activities that get them active and having fun as well as finding out more about Move it Boom in a special assembly.

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. Following the launch, we hope this initiative will inspire children to become healthier through physical activity. 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.”

Leicester City in the Community will support Move It Boom 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.

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 sporting and outdoor equipment for The Beacon, an in-patient mental health facility for children and young people. Schools will be encouraged to have a fundraising element to their activity challenges.

“We know that outdoor physical activity contributes to the recovery of patients with mental health conditions, and we would like to make sure that we are doing all we can to support our young people on their journey,” said Carolyn Pascoe of Raising Health.