Inspiring children to achieve their dreams
Why Get Set?
Princeville saw Get Set as a great opportunity to get children excited about the Olympic and Paralympic Games and about learning itself. This was a means of helping to make learning relevant, for children to discover more about the Games and the athletes, and to feel inspired to do their very best.
Being in a network with other schools was seen as important by Princeville both as a means of sharing their own achievements and successes and for gaining fresh ideas.
The Journey So Far
Using an assembly from the Get Set website, the Olympic and Paralympic Values were introduced with gold medals awarded to children demonstrating these.
Usain Bolt provided an inspiring focus for a variety of activities and in getting children to think about healthy lifestyles. To promote running, children created lively advertising campaigns including posters and radio/TV adverts.
A group were lucky enough to be taken to the Paralympic World Cup. With limited tickets available for the visit children had to use their best persuasive writing skills, explaining why they deserved to go and which Values they had demonstrated.
With Seb Coe as special guest, children joined other schools in Bradford to present work they had been doing as part of Get Set, some even taking part in an athletics event complete with a real gold-medallist spectator!
Positive Values
In classes that have studied the Values, an improvement in behaviour has been seen along with a more determined attitude to succeed; children are excited to push themselves to achieve new things.
Children have been given an exciting, cross-curricular topic as a means of learning and have shown increased interest in sport. Having been inspired by athletes, children have learnt to be the best they can be, have confidently discussed their own dreams for the future and have all made personalised targets for the year.
‘Children regularly come into class in a morning and want to share what they have seen on the news about Usain Bolt or Chris Hoy or Tom Daley.’
And the highlights for students?
- ‘I love to see new sports.’
- ‘It’s great seeing lots of people competing.’
- ‘We get to see games that we could try to do.’
- ‘I love seeing Usain Bolt run and break records!’
Towards 2012
Princeville looks towards planning a whole school programme of activities, including hosting sporting events and using further assemblies to discuss the Values. A measure of success would be children referring to the Values and recognising when they have demonstrated them.
Children will have opportunities to:
- Experience their very own Mini Olympics
- Set goals and targets in and out of school
- Develop knowledge of the Games and their history.
As 2012 approaches, Princeville aims to continue encouraging children to become more aware of what is happening outside of Bradford and to understand just how great it is to have the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London!
