It may be nearly a year since London 2012, but pupils at one Oldham primary school are proof the Olympic values have well and truly remained after displaying their sporting skills as part of National School Sport Week.
Broadfield Primary School, of Goddard Street, were one of nearly 6,500 schools and three million young people who took part in Lloyds TSB National School Sport Week this year – Britain’s biggest school sport event.
Around 340 children aged between three and 11 were offered the chance to compete in a wide variety of activities throughout the week including fencing, boxing, rounders, skipping and dodgeball.
Recent research from Lloyds TSB revealed that over three million (79%) of the pupils who took part in last year’s National School Sport Week (in England and Wales) are now playing more sport than before.
And learning mentor Elaine Jolley, who also takes PE classes, insists it is great to see how all the pupils have adopted important values such as respect, determination and equality from the sports fields to the classroom.
“We loved the Olympics and tried to carry on the values it spread out and to still be following them now is excellent,” said 52-year-old Jolley.
“We have regular sporting assemblies where children have been getting rewarded for following the values and in their houses they have been competing against one another.
“Things like equality, excellence, determination and inspiration have been displayed throughout the school and this week was a celebration of that.
“The children experienced different sports like boxing and fencing that we don’t normally offer and it was all about showing them another sport to taste and hopefully we will offer them more.
“We started with a fun run in Alexandra Park on the Monday with about 180 kids and then some of our Year 2 students took part in some Olympic events which all the schools in the area at Hathershaw High School.”
It wasn’t just the children who were able to partake in some healthy exercise however as the week ended with a staff netball match – one that Jolley insisted was rather competitive.
Since National School Sport Week began more than 21,000 schools and almost nine million pupils have taken part and Jolley hopes there will be a knock-on effect after this week.
“The staff had a netball match as well but it was far too competitive for the kids to be involved in, it was nice for everyone at the school to get a chance to participate,” she added.
“Some of the new sports the kids took part in had a great response and we are hoping to have more after- school clubs with things like boxing and fencing which we haven’t offered before and that would be great.”
Lloyds TSB National School Sport Week, Britain’s biggest school sporting event, took place from June 24 – 28. Support your local school and help continue to encourage more young people to do more sport. To find out more visit www.lloydstsb.com/nssw
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