Dancing youngsters get in step for London 2012 countdown

Sporty students at a North Wales school have proved that the London 2012 Olympics really are something to dance about.

Ysgol Bryn Hyfryd in Ruthin staged a mass choreographed dance involving 450 pupils to get in step with the 500 day countdown to the London 2012 Olympics.

The huge dance-a-thon was the brainchild of six form student and keen dancer, Megan Bolam, as part of a school competition for the 'Get Set' official London 2012 education programme1.

Megan, 17, and fellow pupil Scott Edwards, 18, were selected as Gold Young Ambassadors2 for Denbighshire - a movement of inspirational young people who encourage their peers to take up sport and live by the Olympic and Paralympic values of respect, friendship, personal excellence, courage, determination, inspiration and equality.

Sport Wales oversees the Young Ambassadors programme in Wales, supporting the young volunteers with their work in their schools, colleges and communities to drive opportunity, engagement and change for other young people.

Richard Dando is a senior officer at Sport Wales and coordinates the Young Ambassador initiative on a national level.

He said: "We believe that it is essential to empower and inspire young people in Wales to become role models and leaders. With the right skills and increased confidence they will be able to encourage and reward their peers to get hooked on sport for life.

"Megan and Scott have shown great leadership skills to encourage 450 of their peers to get involved in this dance event. It is a brilliant example of how our dedicated Young Ambassadors are capturing the Olympic and Paralympic spirit and inspiring huge numbers of youngsters to get hooked on sport for life."

Robin Wilson, Head of PE at Ysgol Bryn Hyfryd said: "We are extremely pleased to be a part of the Get Set programme and I would heartily recommend other schools to fully sign up to it. Combined with the Young Ambassador scheme, we can promote the wider benefits of sport through the unique opportunity of having the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics on our doorstep.

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to harness the excitement surrounding London 2012 to inspire our pupils to take part in sport for the good of their health and wellbeing. Megan and Scott have really embraced that idea and have done a fantastic job of motivating their peers to try something new with this exciting project."

Megan said: "I love dancing, so it's really exciting for me to be able to get so many of the younger pupils together at once to give it a try and raise their awareness of London 2012 in a really fun way."

In October 2010, Megan and Scott attended the first Young Ambassador conference in Wales held at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff.  They attended the conference with 50 other Gold Young Ambassadors from all Local Authority areas of Wales and left with ideas on how to raise awareness of London 2012 and inspire their friends to participate in sport.

In addition to the Gold Young Ambassadors many secondary schools across Wales have recruited  adiStars3 Young Ambassadors to support the Gold Young Ambassadors and increase the number of young role models championing participation in sport and the power of London 2012. 

The Young Ambassador movement is supported by Sport Wales, the Youth Sport Trust, London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) and adidas.