My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
Yes
I am 18 years of age or above, by the application deadline.
Yes
My organisation is a registered UK entity and has a London-based address.
Yes
My organisation is a non-profit (e.g. school, university, or local authority) — not a for-profit, which can only join as a partner.
Yes
If there is a for-profit organisation as a partner in my initiative, they work on a cost-recovery basis only.
Yes
My solution is implemented at scale, or if not, I have a clear business plan, a minimum viable solution (prototype, pilot, or proof of concept), evidence of access to a lease for the space you are leveraging, and evidence of work or impact in London within your coalition.
Yes
I am aware that, if I am submitting more than one application to a Challenge run by Ashoka and Go! London, only one of them is able to progress through the stages.
Yes
Are you an employee (and their children and grandchildren) of Ashoka or any of its respective affiliates and participating advertising and promotion agencies?
No
I have read and accepted the Challenge Terms & Conditions.
Yes
First Name
Rosemary
Last Name
Osborne
Pronouns
She/Her
Email address
I would like to receive notifications and updates about Go London!, Ashoka, Ashoka Changemakers, and other Ashoka opportunities.
1
Are you an Ashoka Fellow?
No
Are you applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow?
No
If you are applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow, please specify the name and organisation of the fellow below.
Lead Organisation Name
Eltham Hill School
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2026
Initiative Title
Go Activate EHS!
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
https://www.elthamhill.com/
Initiative Stage
Idea (You have a solid concept and are hoping to get started in the future)
Sectors/Themes: What topic does your project most directly relate to?
Health & Fitness
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
Activating Spaces and Extending Sports Provision for Young People at Eltham Hill School.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve and who will benefit the most from your solution? How close are you to the problem and/or community impacted?
We have a problem with space in our school in terms of Sports facilities. Currently, we have one playground, which is not really used for sport. We have a playing field, which is not particularly big and a sports hall. We also have 2 netball courts. We would like to be able to offer our young people more opportunities for sport in terms of extracurricular activities and also during students' free time - lunch and breaks. This helps to build our community ethos and also develops health, fitness and wellbeing within the school community. We want to look at ways of extending the spaces and also activating already existing spaces by thinking in innovative ways and thinking about how to maximise the potential of unused/undeveloped spaces in the school in order to utilise them for sport. Currently, we are in deficit and so we really need to find external sources of funding in order to do this efficiently and effectively. This will also mean that external providers will be able to utilise our facilities as well to make it a community hub for sport and activities.
Your approach: How are you/ will you addressing the problem outlined above? How does your solution unlock or reimagine access to spaces for sport and physical activity? What role do landowners, local authorities, or other decision-making stakeholders play in your approach? We'd love to know about the origin of your idea, and what was your "aha" moment" that led you to take action?
We want to look at the existing site of the school, including any unused areas within the school grounds, which could be 'activated' or developed to incorporate sports facilities. We would involve students, staff and stakeholders to discuss ideas for different spaces and this will help all stakeholders take ownership of the project. We would firstly audit the whole school grounds and discuss ideas for each of the areas to start planning what to put in the spaces and how we will develop them as fitness/sport areas. We will also make sure that the facilities will break down barriers that stop young people taking part in sport, for example, different ways of delivering fitness/health. For example, considering a wide variety of play/sport/fitness spaces such as long jump, high jump, play areas which encourage sport, new fitness equipment, exercise equipment, table tennis tables, innovative equipment such as climbing frames or games. We would also like to upgrade the existing facilities as we do not currently have some basic facilities such as nets for tennis/badminton, outdoor equipment and a high jump/long jump area. We would also like to consider getting outside facilitators in to advise and run specific activities for our students to encourage more of them to take up sport. We would particularly like to involve the sixth form as they currently do not have any space for sport and would really like to get involved. We would like to invite other schools in to use the updated facilities and involve them in competitions or sports days for primary schools in the area for example. We are particularly interested in developing non-used areas in the grounds for sports activities.
Collaboration with young people and the community: In what ways does your initiative engage young people and community members closest to the problem? What role do they play in building the solution you deliver?
We would set up a working group of staff and students and firstly involve them in creating a plan of the school grounds. We will then identify potential areas that could be 'activated' or developed to incorporate sport or activities for health. We would then come up with ideas for these areas, working closely with stakeholders, governors and students. We would then present the plans as a group to the leadership team and staff/governors to decide on which plans would best fit the project and promote sport and activities within the school grounds effectively eg a table tennis area, extend our outdoor sport equipment, develop active play areas in the playground, develop our sensory garden further, provide more outdoor games and activities that promote health, equipment for sport eg community footballs for using and also updating existing equipment that is now worn out such as netball and football posts and repainting the lines on the courts. We would also look at innovative ideas such as climbing frames to develop bare areas in the play areas and also simple ideas such as hopskotch areas for active play. Students would be at the heart of this process, planning, designing and sharing their ideas to Leadership Group, governors and also all stakeholders/whole school assemblies. When we have chosen the activities and project focii, we will have the students take part in the creation and development of these areas at all stages, with a member of Leadership overseeing the project. We would also pitch our ideas to local community groups/schools so that they can use the space at weekends of after hours. We could also share the space with local primaries to use for events/sports days. Students would also evaluate at each stage and get input from all students.
Potential for/Evidence of Impact: How do you imagine your initiative will make a difference in unlocking spaces for and access to physical activity and sport so far? If you have already implemented it, what difference have you made so far? What is the impact your initiative has had , and or what impact do you envision having in the future?
We know that students' wellbeing and happiness is improved through the addition of sport and health facilities. We have already started work on a sensory garden, which has had a great impact on students in terms of mental health and decompression. We also know that students who are active tend to do better in their studies - rather than being sedentary, they are active and engaged with the outdoors and also with sport. We know that there is a history of teenagers not being engaged activeuly in sport and we want to increase the attendance of students at extra-curricular enrichment such as sports activities and competitions. We would like to involve as many students as we can in the process - starting with the planning and mapping of ideas and also through the creation of new spaces. We could use the SSAT student leadership award to accredit students to reflect their commitment to the project. We want to make the outside space more attractive to young people through providing a range of spaces for a wide variety of activity - athletics, play, football, netball, tennis, badminton, long jump, high jump and possibly climbing activities in the future. All of these activities will promote health, activity and engagement and offer our students a great range of opportunities for development. We can make swift changes by providing outdoor games and activities and then over time, develop each underused space for our students and the local community. This will be an ongoing process. Initially we will start with a smaller group of students of up to 30 and then their work will be shared with the whole community of staff and students. Both staff and students will feel the impact of the overall project as there will be lots of opportunities for sport which do not currently exist.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
We really want to look at our limited space (we are currently oversubscribed) and utilise every space possible to increase the sport and fitness of the students. We really want to think of innovative ways of thinking, such as looking upwards - could we create a climbing wall for example or very small spaces for a long jump or small corners of the playground for hopscotch as an example. We will shift the perception of spaces, which are usually used for talking/eating outside, by shifting boundaries and expectations for example creating table tennis areas and games on picnic benches to encourage activity. We may also develop innovative ideas for games for example using recycled items to create new outdoor games or giant chess sets. Also, this will help to democratise the spaces that we have by providing a range of sporting activities rather than the usual expected ones. We would also invite the local community for events such as our annual picnic or sports days for primaries. This project will be breaking down barriers to being active to make play and fitness a central part of the school day and the curriculum for both staff and students. We really want to encourage more collaboration between staff and students and so this will encourage this approach of working and build relationships/strong communities of learning.
Viability and Scalability: How are you setting your initiative up for success, and what is your plan to ensure operational sustainability of your solution and its impact? What are your ideas for scaling your initiative to the next level?
We would have a clear time plan of how the project would be led by a senior leader. We would have key milestones of impact and this would be monitored by the headteacher. We would start with small, visible impact and then build into larger areas of the school grounds, creating long-lasting and well maintained areas. We would ensure sustainability by having the equipment and areas well maintained by the student leadership teams and eco-club/PE department and we would liaise with staff and governors regularly to evaluate the project at each stage. The student leadership team would feed back in whole school assemblies to share the project over time and students could add to the project by contributing new ideas over time. We would sustain this by creating additional areas into the future with new year groups that come through. Regular updates would be made through the newsletter, bulletins and the website and we could also encourage the local community to use the facilities as they grow year on year.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
The school would appoint a senior leader on the leadership team to lead the project overall. This would be the person who is in charge of student leadership and also who oversees the performing arts and PE. This person is line managed by the headteacher and has to report regularly to governors. The school governors would also monitor and evaluate the project by having regular updates and impact reports based on the project made by the senior leader. The finance officer would also be involved in the planning and monitoring of the project and also students and staff would have input at every stage to evaluate the project. We would also involve local community groups and primary schools who may wish to share the spaces. We already host one sports days with local primary school but we could easily extend this if we could offer more sports facilities. We also rent out some spaces to local community groups and this also could be extended if more facilities were on offer for the project. We may also inform local business to see if they would like to get involved - we already have strong links with some companies through our work experience and careers programmes. We would ensure that regular reports and data collection would take place to measure impact in terms of engagement and use of the facilities and through student/staff voice. We can also look at attendance/punctuality/behaviour reports to measure the impact on wellbeing throughout each year.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/to grow.
We would start with the planning stages with a student leadership team for the project. This would involve auditing what facilities we already have and mapping the current provision on site in terms of spaces that we want to develop. Detailed plans will be produced. We would then take feedback from all stakeholders in terms of ideas of how we would develop the areas and introduce greater sports and fitness opportunities. The next stage would be take the ideas back to the leadership team and governors and also with student voice groups to make final decisions. There would then be an action plan of how the site would be developed overseen by the senior leader. The work would then be started by buying equipment/developing spaces with outside companies. This would then be scaled up to all of the areas that we want to address. At each stage there would be an evaluation of the project and impact reports produced. We would ask students regularly what they think of the changes and plan the next stages of the project to develop more areas. We would then ask the local community about what they think about the new areas and ask them to get involved by taking part in activities such as sports days or enrichment at the school. When we have completed the first phase of the changes, we would evaluate the impact of the project and then begin on a new focus in the school grounds.
Capacity-Building Participation and Support Funding: If you were to make it as a finalist, you will be required to participate in an 8-week capacity building programme. If funding/ cost is a barrier to your participation, we may be able to offer up to 10,000 GBP of grant money available to support you. Please break down below, if it is the case, what costs you would incur and you would need covered. (Please note that there are restrictions on how the grant money may be used; please refer to the T&Cs for further details.
We would need to have the senior leader covered for this process to take place - this would need 8 weeks of cover at £200 a day and so the funding would need to be used for this. We are currently in a financial deficit and so this would be imperative for us to have. We would also need the finance director involved in some of this time so would also use the money for this so that we are fully covered in school at this time.
If you selected “Other”, please specify below.
Through an email to my headteacher.
