Sport has always been a big part of my life – and now I’m absolutely delighted that it’s become an even bigger part.

Now, when I’m at home at the weekend and my wife shouts at me for watching Sky Sports News, I can just tell her that I’m working!

So it really is my dream job – and there’s no better place to be at the end of my first week than here with the people who have done the most to turn sport in schools around in the last 10 years. But I see this job as not about my dreams, but helping others fulfil theirs.

Why is sport in the school environment so important?

It’s because it is the place where all young people get a chance to try sport out and find something they like. If you do, that means you might be active for life, and it expands the base from which we find talent.

It’s important because, regardless of the level you play at, the value and life skills that sport gives you stand you in great stead as you begin your adult life. 

I’m a great believer in competitive sport - whether it’s against yourself, against the clock, against an opposing team.

So for me, the increasing focus we’ve put on competitive sport in schools is exactly the right thing to do – for both boys and girls. As a father of both, I know girls are just as competitive as boys.

There is no gender divide here. Competition teaches every child good values and essential life skills.

Winning and losing and taking both in equal measure.

The importance of discipline, teamwork, and your obligations to others – to turn up, support your team mates.

How to perform under pressure – holding catches, taking penalties, running the last leg.

I want to give you a little of my own background. It may help you understand how I intend to approach this job.

The highest level I reached was to play cricket for Lancashire schoolboys. I also played football and basketball.

But it was at school that I got a great life lesson.

When I played football, I was a prima-donna, fancy-dan winger who didn’t like doing the hard work – typical future politician you might think.

My games teacher had spotted this and said I couldn’t play for the football team unless I also played for the school rugby league team.

I can remember now a freezing January night in Wigan when I was the last man and either had to make the tackle or face my team mates – to stand up and be counted. From then on my football improved no end.

It was a great lesson in life.

Sport was the best bit about school. But like many people at school in the 80s, I saw after-school sport dry up.

As a politician, I have always been determined to do something to revive it.

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And we’ve come a long way already.

In 1999, I was an adviser at DCMS when we were developing our first school sports strategy. We developed the role of the schools sports co-ordinator, earmarking funds from the Lottery for a new generation of facilities in school and preparing the first wave of specialist sports colleges.

Stepping back into the Department nine years on, I am thrilled by the progress made.

Back then, the big goal was to get children playing at least two hours a week. As the Prime Minister has said, that has been achieved. Now we want to increase that to five hours. But more than that, we want to offer the breadth of sporting experiences – from quality coaching through regular training to the chance to hone skills in a competitive situation – all of these things are important.

In short, the aim is to set a new level of ambition.

The truth is we’ve still got further to go.

Too many talents are being lost to too many sports – because they don’t get the chance to try, and don’t get the right coaching in the basics at the right age.

These are the questions I ask as I start this job –

Are we doing enough to teach the basics of cricket – a good forward defensive or how to spin or seam a ball – to children in inner city schools?

 Do those children get a chance to try tennis?

Are we relying too much on football?

Can we do more to get expert and qualified coaches into schools?

How can we breathe new life into the competitive structures in schools sport – regular league and cup competitions?

Are we doing anywhere near enough for young people with disabilities?

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And, crucially, do girls get the same chances to do all of this as boys and try a full range of sports?

So here are some of my early thoughts as I take on this vital role.

I want to place equal emphasis on the development of girls’ sport in school as boys’ – and Kelly Holmes is doing tremendous work on that front.

I want to do more to bring qualified coaches in all the main sports into our schools and give young people the basic techniques at the earliest age.

And, as the PM said, we want to work with the Governing Bodies and the Youth Sports Trust to build on what we’ve got to create a vibrant, competitive system in the main sports in all schools. That means all schools fielding representative teams in the main sports – boys and girls – against other local schools in cup and league matches on a regular basis.

With support from the Youth Sport Trust, competition in school sports is being revitalised. Virtually every school now has a sports day, six out of ten pupils take part in competitive sport with their schoolmates, and over a third represent their school against others.

But it needs to happen on a regular, sustained basis, not just a few random games here and there. And it has to happen within an organised school league system.

In short, I’d like to bring a real vibrancy to sport in schools.

But how do we make all this real and bring it to life?

At the moment, about a third of children drop out of competitive sport after 16 – girls particularly.

How do we capture their imagination about sport early?

I think we already have the solution to this. We just need to apply it.

Those of us who are parents already know about the power of the internet and social networking – Bebo, MySpace and so on.

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And those of us who have children already involved in league sports outside of school are probably familiar with club and league websites, where the team’s matches, results and league positions are posted.

I think there is a fantastic opportunity to bring school sport and new media together – to make positive use of new media by constructing a dedicated school sports website.

I want to tell you about an idea for this, a showcase for achievement and a place to celebrate talent.

Think about the educational possibilities for the whole school with children writing and posting their own match reports, podcasting, blogging, doing interviews, videoing games, editing highlights packages. Imaging the kick children would get from friends, parents, talent scouts – anyone anywhere in the world being able to watch the goal they scored or the save they made.

I’m very conscious, of course, of the sensitivities and that there would have to be appropriate oversight and content management.

The real meat of the site though would be league tables for a national school sports leagues system – a means of comparing with the best from elsewhere. As well as the league tables, it would provide a results service, leading scorers, medal winners, record holders and so on.  It could be a vehicle for talent spotting, a way of sharing the best in teaching and coaching, and one of the ways of making those connections between English schools and schools around the world.

We have a real chance here, running up to 2012, to build a really vibrant sports culture from the bottom up – unlocking sporting talent. More than anything, it could fire the enthusiasm of young people to excel in sport, to see their names up in lights.

I think this is a great idea, and one the government could help to get off the ground. But you are the experts in this. This is something for the whole school sports community rather than central government and it is one I’d like to explore with you all here.

I want this to be the first step to building permanent league structures in all the English regions – something that will bring children into sport and yes, it will encourage competition – in the right spirit – and it will encourage a healthy ‘playing-to-win’ culture into English sport right from the grassroots level.

Thank you