School Cluster News - School Sports Coordinator Programme - Updated 04/04/08
New strategy for PE & Sport for young peopleThe Department for children, schools and families are working with their delivery partners, the Youth Sport Trust and Sport England to develop the new strategy building on PESSCL.
The aim is to create a world class system for PE and sport for all children and young people, which will stimulate and increase their participation in sport and sustain it.
Over the next 3 years there will be at least £755 million invested. The funding will be to sustain Sports Colleges & School Sport Partnerships (SSP), to extend the SSP into the FE Sector, to extend the opportunities for more young people to access up to 5 hours of sport per week by funding activities, coaching and competition development. More development of multi skill clubs and performance pathways will take place for both the very able and disabled participants.
Further funding will also support community sports coaches, young sports leaders and volunteers and build better links between schools and community sports providers.
The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be used as an inspiration and built into all the plans is a legacy for our youth.
Moving into the FE Sector
Furness SSP will benefit greatly from the new announcements of additional funding to increase the participation in sport of our 16-19 year olds. Both Furness College and Barrow in Furness Sixth Form College will employ a sport coordinator for a couple of days per week.
The Sixth Form is part of a national pilot so they will start up in April. The FE sport coordinator will be able to link in to all the work occurring already in the SSP. The main aims are to encourage more 16 to 19 year olds to do up to three hours of sport per week. It is envisaged the coordinator will develop more competitions, recreational activity sessions, links to community events/clubs, and create pathways for sports leaders advance their skills and qualifications.
Furness College is expected to come on board with a coordinator from September.
It is a very exciting time in development of the School Sport Partnership. This initiative allows us to extend and improve the links we have had with the two colleges over the last 5 years.
Swimmers get the chance to prove they are worth the grade
Students were able to spend some quality time in the pool to be assessed in swimming for their GCSE in PE. Secondary schools in the area do not deliver swimming on the PE curriculum but students are still able to use this discipline as part of their practical grade. Barrow Swimming Club kindly gave some pool time and expertise to allow this to happen. Teachers and students from Dowdales and St Bernards went along for 2 sessions. Let’s hope the extra effort allows the students to get the grade they deserve in their exam.
Gymnastic Development
Gymnastics is always an area that teachers want help and support with. The SSP invited Dave Harrison, a well known coach and lecturer from the Lancaster area to deliver two workshops for local staff. The afternoon saw twenty primary staff balancing, rolling and jumping around the gymnasium. The staff came away with ideas to make their gymnastic lessons interesting and developmental. Some also had a few aches and pains!
In the evening 17 secondary school staff had a two hour workshop on developing the key stage 3 curriculum. Following this the staff have decided to have another workshop in June to share their knowledge and practice.
Primary Link Teachers share their practice
All staff were invited to a network day to get updates about the partnership and also to have a chance to share their knowledge and practice. There were four sessions that sparked lots of conversation and questions. The sessions were led by the staff themselves.
Vicky Smith from Lindal & Martin School told us how the Activate Programme has been introduced to all classes has had a significant impact on the children. Children are enjoying the sessions and she has seen an improvement in the coordination, balance and confidence of many.
Rhiannan Brown from Sir John Barrow School shared her experiences in the development of swimming in her school. Rhiannan has rewritten the whole policy and schemes of work, organised staff to attend appropriate training, reorganised how swimming is delivered with great results. Now all the children leaving SJB can swim and many have progressed to further skills including life saving.
Paul Randell from Newbarns School showed us an inspirational dvd made by his pupils and IT coordinator. The APE programme is all about being active at lunch times. Active Participation Encouragement is run by older pupils allowing younger children to play games and do sporting activities in the playground. It was great to see the diversity of equipment used in the playground to encourage children to play.
Vanessa Foster gave a short presentation on the new Gifted and Talented in PE policy for the county. This raised the awareness of staff about the need for a school policy and register for the youngsters in their school. There will be some training in the near future to support the developments in primary schools.
It is always extremely beneficial for staff to get together to share ideas and experiences.
Who’s a basic mover?
After an inspiring talk last October by Mike Jess from Edinburgh University four local teachers have been invited to represent the Furness area in a programme of training on Basic Moves. This will involve them attending 4 -6 days worth of training, delivering the basic moves curricular ideas and themes to their school children. Once they are experienced in the delivery of the programme the teachers themselves will become tutors and deliver further training to other staff in our area. The aim is to get as many schools using the basic moves principles in their lessons as possible.
Step Into Sport
Step Into sport is a volunteer programme for 16 – 19 year olds in full time education. The programme is an exciting opportunity for young people to volunteer in a managed and supported community structure. There are many benefits for volunteers who take part in Step Into Sport such as a chance to develop communicative, leadership and organisational skills, build confidence, develop your CV’s, gain coaching / officiating awards, and enhance social and personal skills.
Clubs also benefit through having a Step Into Sport volunteer. They can forge valuable links with the community, utilise the skills of the volunteer (PR, fundraising, media etc as well as through coaching etc), and help to raise aspirations for young people in the community.
Conference
At the end of January, a conference was held at Furness College for all students interested in being Step Into Sport Volunteers. Students had the opportunity to speak to a current volunteer with over 200 hours volunteering experience, talk to representatives from Cumbria Sport and Anne and Helen from the Furness School Sport Partnership, Chris from Barrow Borough Sports Council and members of local sports clubs who have volunteers placed with them.
The volunteers gained an insight into what being a volunteer entails and were talked through the new volunteer passport on the Youth Sport Trust website. In the afternoon the volunteers had the opportunity to take part in a multi skills course or gain an NGB award in start rugby up at Furness Rugby Club.
If you have any questions about the Step Into Sport Programme please feel free to contact either Chris Athersmith on cathersmith@barrowbc.gov.uk or Helen Wright on hwright@alfredbarrow.cumbria.sch.uk
Spring into Sport Ability
Results were 1st Dowdales, 2nd Walney and 3rd Thorncliffe. Well done to all teams and especially St Bernards for entering 3 teams.
Furness Schools Key Step Gymnastics championships
All the competitions were judged and scored by secondary school pupils from Dowdales, Thorncliffe, Walney and Parkview Schools. These students had already helped at the cluster competitions after being on a training course to become Key Step Gymnastic Judges. The Year 10 NCS PE Group from Parkview did all the background work for the event – recording scores, providing the music and being in charge of the equipment. All students were a credit to their schools and made the competition the success it was.
On the day there was a collection for Sport relief and a total of £35.70 was raised. So thanks to all the parents, pupils and staff for contributing.
Key Step 1 competition was first and teams of up to 5 children competed from Greengate Infant , Dane Ghyll, Yarlside, Dalton St Marys’, South Walney Infants and St Columbas.
The children had to do a vault and a floor routine and the best 4 scores were added together for the final team score. It was an extremely close run competition with Dane Ghyll School winning by 0.1 of a mark with 62.8 points and Greengate and Yarlside were joint runners up with 62.7.
The key Step 2 and 3 competition started straight after at 10.30 again there was a strong entry field. Seventy eight gymnasts performed their well practiced routines producing a great display of skill and effort.
In the Key step 2 competition Yarlside were crowned Champions with 71.7 points ahead of Greengate Juniors, 68.0 and Lindal & Martin School 67.2.
There was an atmosphere of great rivalry in the competitions and the key Step 3 competition was no different with the top honours going to the same 2 schools as in key step 2. In this competition however the triumphant school was Greengate Junior (58.9) with Yarlside finishing 2nd (56.8) and Dalton St Marys 3rd (55.4).
The winning teams have qualified to go through to the County Finals on April19th at Penrith. Lindal and Martin School will be taking all 3 age group teams to the finals to represent Furness in the small schools competition.
The competition was a culmination of 7 local qualifying events and it has grown over the last 3 years. There are now many more schools providing after school gymnastic clubs and entering their children into competitions.
Key Stage 3 Gymnastics competition The team competition this year was strictly for novices. The year 7 competition saw 3 school teams enter. Each team had 4 competitors and they all performed a vault and a floor routine.
Dowdales were triumphant with 49.0 points, Parkview came 2nd – 47 points and Thorncliffe finished in 3rd place.
In the year 8 competition Dowdales won with Thorncliffe in 2nd place.
This year there was also an individual competition for those pupils who are a member of the Furness Gymnastics Club or have competed in a higher competition over the last 2 years. 2 year 7 pupils and 6 year 8 pupils entered. Sam from Parkview won year 7 and Toni from Parkview won the year 8 event.
Again all the events were judged and scored by the older students.