Six NSW public school students from regional and remote communities are in France as part of Festival ’24, the inaugural International and Inclusion Youth Sports Festival, which coincides with the Paris Olympics.

The students are all School Based Apprentices and/or Trainees (SBATs), who secured their passage to the ‘Sport for Good Festival’ by participating in the Creating Chances program as part of their studies.

Narromine High School Year 11 student, Callum Hutchison, and Armidale Secondary College Year 12 student, Laura Grant, are among more than 500 young people representing 36 countries in France over 10 days from 18 to 27 July.

While in France, the students will be exposed to opportunities to learn, connect, and help shape the future of sport in Australia.

They will also experience a range of Olympic and Paralympic sports, as well as cultural enrichment opportunities.

Laura, a talented football and futsal player, said the Creating Chances program had convinced her to stay at school to continue her studies.

“At the start of Year 11 I actually went to my careers advisor and told her I wanted to drop out of school,” she said.

“She said, ‘Creating Chances do a really good SBAT program, and I think you’d love it’, because I was really into sports.

“Since then, I’ve been with Creating Chances and it’s opened my eyes to how school works. Also, just to enjoy it really and not to take it too seriously.”

She hoped the France trip during the Olympics would lead to more opportunities when she returns to Australia.

“Creating Chances are really big on football. I’m tossing and turning between coaching and teaching PDHPE in schools,” she said.

Rugby union player Callum said the program had already opened doorways for him.

“I go to local primary schools and run coaching sessions every Monday in a variety of sports. I love that. I love seeing the kids run around and have fun,” he said.

“In the future I see myself on a sporting track – whether it’s coaching or anything to do with sport. I’d love to be playing – rugby – but I also play basketball.”

Both Laura and Callum said they hoped the trip would provide them with further inspiration about their future sporting pathways.

“I think just having the opportunity of going overseas and meeting new people and everything. It’s just really cool to me,” Laura said.

“I have an open mind to what it’s going to be. I’m hoping to learn a lot from all the other delegates who are going, because they do similar stuff to us.

“I want to learn more about my coaching and bring it back and apply it to my coaching skills here."

Creating Chances is a social enterprise that uses sport and experiential learning as a vehicle for young people to develop personal, social, educational and community development skills.

It has worked in collaboration with the NSW Department of Education for more than a decade to deliver regular programming into more than 100 schools.