Get Set
Get Set
-
Olympic City: London
-
Country: United Kingdom
-
Edition of the Games: 1908, 1948 & 2012 Olympic Summer Games
Get Set is the educational programme developed for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Originally designed and delivered in the lead up to the 2012 Games, it has now transformed into a fundamental part of the legacy of the event and is aimed at keeping youth engaged with Team GB and Paralympics GB in the lead up to the next Olympics. It simultaneously aims to keep these youths involved in physical activity and educate them on the values that underpin the Olympic and Paralympic movements.
Get Set was originally run by the Local Organising Committee for the London Games. Once the Games finished, this body was dissolved as planned and the operational responsibility for the programme transferred over jointly to the British Olympic Association and the British Paralympic Association.
The Get Set programme is delivered through partner schools and youth groups and is predominantly housed online through the official Get Set website. Through this platform, pupils and schools can access content relating to over 200 different packages relating to sports and physical activity. These can be taken and applied to the classroom, the playground and even outside in the local community.
This online platform is supported by supplementary ad-hoc initiatives namely featured activities and the development of mobile applications. These additional initiatives usually involve partnering with various third parties for support and also ensures that the programme remains relevant and interesting as times change.
The programme has been one of the major success stories of London 2012 with over 24,000 schools and youth engaged on a continuous basis.
Promote social and constructive behaviour
The Olympic and Paralympic values are a fundamental component of the Get Set syllabus. The Olympic values of friendship, excellence and respect, and the Paralympic values of inspiration, determination, courage and equality underpin almost every area of course material. This helps to ensure that these values are constantly reinforced in the minds of pupils, as well as distinguishing the content from other physical education programmes.
Promote a healthy and active lifestyle
All of the material and activities associated with the Get Set programme are designed to inspire young people to become more physically active. This approach combines actual physical exercise with cross-curricular modules in health and well-being, personal development and social skills. This holistic view reflects the belief that critical areas such as self-motivation, character building, teamwork and resilience have a profound impact on the health and lifestyle choices of the youth today.
.
Evaluation
The success of Get Set is evaluated on the basis of in depth research linked to the specific initiatives that make up the programme. This research is performed by the specialised research department of the programme’s delivery agency who report on key impact metrics such as trends in motivation levels, resource usage and engagement levels.
.
Key Challenges
Maintaining momentum post-Games
In the first stage of the project’s life, everything was focused on the lead up to London 2012. The magic of the Games helped to generate huge momentum behind the Get Set programme. However, once the Games finished it was a struggle to replicate this. All of a sudden the next Games were very far away both in terms of time and distance and this caused a considerable ebb in the momentum behind the project.
To combat this, the organisers reframed the Get Set programme, keeping all the best parts but shifting the focus away from supporting the local delivery of the Games and towards supporting the national athletes as they prepare to travel to the next Games where they will represent Great Britain abroad.
Handing over operational responsibility
One of the unavoidable realities facing any Local Organizing Committee of an Olympic Games is that they too will come to a close shortly after the Games themselves. This meant that the project had to be handed over to new custodians in the form of the British Olympic and Paralympic Associations. The required knowledge transfer and relationship management as part of this handover and this presented challenges.
Given that the dissolution of the LOCOG was a certainty from the outset, the handover had been well planned. Furthermore, the close ties between the LOCOG and the new team meant that handover was very smooth and actually suited the new frame of the programme in the aftermath of the London Games.
.
Key Learnings & Recommendations
Build a shared community
Since Get Set first started, youth have become more interconnected with increased access to better technology. This has developed a sharing culture amongst the youth of today and this has been used by the organisers to their advantage. The Get Set website has a social hub section where key learnings and best practices can be shared. During the last quad, initiatives included Google Hangouts with athletes allowing young people to hear from and talk to inspiring role models. The Road to Rio App allowed young people to log their physical activity and share their progress with their peers. This was the first set of a planned series of linked digital initiatives that will further leverage the digital sharing culture to connect with today’s youth.
Drive engagement through incentives
Organisers quickly learned that young people are far more responsive and motivated when their work is recognised and rewarded in some way. This has become increasingly incorporated into the Get Set initiatives. The Road to Rio App for example allowed users to earn badges and other exclusive rewards based on reaching milestones in their physical activity log. Such schemes are supported by the involvement of partners who are often keen to provide value-in-kind in the form of rewards as this approach can often closely match their own objectives from a commercial or social point of view.
More information
The full case is available in printable version on the members’ portal.
In addition to the above description, the PDF version also gathers practical information including internal and external partners involved; finance and cost; use of the olympic brand; human resources and time; and contact details.
The World Union of Olympic Cities’ team remains at your disposal for any further information and contact’s facilitation at info@olympiccities.org
Additional resources can be found through the following links:
