LAST Friday, Gareth Bale fired Wales to a 1-0 victory over Belgium to take a giant step towards qualifying for Euro 2016.

For the first time in nearly 60 years, the Wales national football team look set to qualify for a major international tournament and, in the process, inspire a generation.

Indeed, using the talismanic Bale as an example, it has been little surprise to see thousands of Welsh youngsters donning Real Madrid shirts since his world record £85 million move to the Spanish giants in 2013.

On the surface, it seems that despite all the technological distractions of the era, from the Playstation to the iPad, there are still a large group of youngsters who love nothing more than emulating their sporting heroes on the field.

Yet, the scale of Wales’ childhood obesity problem was underlined last November following a study showing the nation has the highest percentage of overweight 11 year olds in the UK.

The Millennium Cohort Study revealed that there has been a huge rise in the number of children who have weight problems from the ages of seven to 11.

By the age of 11, in their final year of primary school, 23 per cent of Welsh children are obese and 40.5 per cent are either obese or overweight, according to the survey.

Never before have schemes like National School Sport Week been so important. The Youth Sports Trust started this week-long event in 2008 and since then, millions of youngsters and thousands of primary and secondary schools have gotten involved.

Coinciding with the winding down of the academic year, June 22 to 26, the week is an opportunity for pupils to take part in more school sports.

Dozens of schools across Gwent have signed up for this year’s event, including Markham Primary School in Caerphilly.

Led by PE co-ordinator Victoria Perkins, sport is a huge part of Markham Primary School’s curriculum and the school will even compete in the 2015 Cardiff Games next week.

Being part of national events has become a regular fixture for the school and last February two of the school’s pupils, Kenzie Reynolds and Joshua Healey, both 10, spoke at the Sports Leaders UK conference at the Senedd.

In front of an audience of 100 people, including First Minister Carwyn Jones and the Deputy Minister for culture, sport and tourism, Ken Skates, these two Year Six pupils spoke about how they have championed the role of physical activity as young ambassadors.

The young ambassador programme seeks to develop young leaders and volunteers by giving them the responsibility of being an ambassador for PE and school sport under Ms Perkins and the school’s head teacher Neil Hancox.

Mr Hancox said: “Outdoor activity builds confidence, teamwork and resilience, providing a challenge to the children in a safe environment.

“We’re able to draw in new technologies so that they have a balance. They even film and analyse each other’s athletic performance so that they can improve their times.

“We encourage the children to celebrate outdoor sport in any way they can and lots of our children cycle to school and post photos on our sport selfie wall.

“The skills they develop are transferred into education, and the pupils regularly have the chance to stand up in front of assembly to speak about their achievements.”

Another school in Gwent to embrace the young ambassadors’ programme is Maesglas Primary in Newport, which has led the way in Gwent for promoting physical activity.

Indeed, in 2013, Maesglas Primary emerged as the best school in Wales for measures like the amount of time spent doing sport inside and outside of school time and how many pupils say they enjoy sport.

Collecting the thoughts of 110,000 Welsh schoolchildren from almost 1,000 schools, Sport Wales’ school sport survey is the largest survey of any kind of young people in the UK – giving the school a huge vote of confidence.

Much of this success has been owed to the school embracing two initiatives, the play to learn project and the multi-skills project, which encourage the children to try a wide range of activities and to combine their literacy and numeracy learning with physical activity.

As part of these projects, the school offers a wide range of sports clubs, including dance, rugby, athletics, cricket and football.

Carolyn Charles, the school’s PE co-ordinator, said: “With extracurricular clubs like Zumba, it’s had a massive impact. The percentage of those who enjoy PE has even increased by 13 per cent.

“The children have more energy as a result and are more willing to learn when they’re physically active.

“It’s the Olympic legacy of making PE a core subject and they’re even learning maths and literacy though physical activity.

“The children still have golden time as a reward on Friday and rounders still has a place, but it’s more as a reward rather than just throwing and hitting the ball.

“They are constantly engaged and when it comes to childhood obesity, it’s in the primary years where you can get them at their most enthusiastic and get them active for life.”

It’s not just Gwent primary schools that are inspiring youngsters to take up sport and outdoor activity has also proved crucial to engaging teenagers at Haberdashers’ Monmouth School for Girls.

Around 40 girls are involved with the school’s rowing team, which has become one of the most consistent and professional outfits throughout Wales and the UK.

Having produced future international rowers like Pip Christie, Kate Callaghan, who rowed for Wales at the 1986 Commonwealth Games and has been head of rowing at the school since 2001, said: “It develops confidence and self-esteem. It really helps them believe in themselves.”