Enthusing all children in sports
Why Get Set?
Alongside more traditional sports such as football, rugby, gymnastics and cricket, St Aidan’s (St Helens, North West) was already offering children opportunities in vigorboard, climbing wall activities, mountain biking, Boccia and indoor Highland Games! All children had the opportunity to represent the school in a sporting competition over each school year and St Aidan’s was already part of the Olymkids programme.
A programme of leadership had also been established through activity leaders and ‘Wake up, Shape up’ programmes.
St Aidan’s felt that being part of Get Set and using this to help promote the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games could further enthuse its children in sports.
The Journey So Far
Starting with an assembly introducing children to the Values, further assemblies have focused on prominent Olympic athletes and videos of the Olympic and Paralympic mascots have been used to keep promoting the Values.
Get Set involvement has been used to help drive competitive sport. A focus has been on how all athletes talk about listening to their coaches and respecting them and this has been linked to how children interact with staff around the school.
All children entered a Values-based annual writing competition, writing stories which covered at least one Value in a “moral of the story” style. These were really successful and awards were given out at a church service for the whole school and parents.
An exciting Olympic Torch relay is planned. St Aidan’s and other schools will log details onto the tagzania.com website to see how far the torch has travelled; details will be passed between schools to calculate the total distance reached over the year.
Positive Values
St Aidan’s continues to promote the Values throughout school, with a strong focus on using them to encourage and strengthen participation in sport.
A prominent Values display includes photos of events around the school which tie in with specific Values.
And the highlights for students?
A major inspiration has been individual stories of athletes and how they have to dedicate so much time to their sports. Children have particularly enjoyed visits by disabled Boccia player Ryan Paladino and are following his career with interest.
Another example of this real type of experience inspiring children was when children had the opportunity to take part in a Pool 4 Schools event at the Manchester Aquatic Centre and got the chance to swim with Mel Marshall and Chris Cook.
Children even received a visit from Wenlock who joined them for a ‘Wake Up, Shape Up’ session and Key Stage 1 athletics.
Towards 2012
St Aidan’s aims to maintain all sporting programmes and has exciting plans for an on-site orienteering course. The school wants to use Get Set activities to build on its great sporting ethos and continue inspiring children in sport and physical education. It would love for at least some children to have the opportunity of seeing Olympic or Paralympic events at London 2012.
Activities will continue in school in the lead up to the Games; these will include an Olympic Flame challenge event which will involve seeing how far a ‘flame’ can be carried around the school grounds!
