THE IMPORTANCE OF SPORTS LEADERS Schools are under a lot of pressure to get good results and this in turn is passed on to the pupils. But surely, we should be helping the pupils to become well rounded people rather than treating them like robots in an exam factory. Schools need to prepare their pupils for life after school and improve their personal qualities and employability skills. Children need to be able to communicate and have the confidence to be able to work as an individual and as part of a team. They need to be organised, take responsibility and show Issue 30 initiative to solve problems. This is why sports leaders/young leaders/playground leaders/games/sports organising crew and active health ambassadors are so important. The benefits of these courses are huge – it helps their emotional well-being whilst keeping Spring their mind and body healthy. 2020 The start of my year was jam-packed running 6 young leader’s courses for my primary schools and it was lovely to be asked to return to Riverside and Cedar after an absence of a few years. The children enjoy these courses and get a lot from them. During the course I can see their confidence improve as they realise that they can achieve the set tasks. And by the end of the course their self-esteem WELCOME. has grown and they believe that they can be responsible for leading younger children. I always think that it’s a shame, although quite understandable, that their teachers cannot watch them go through the process. This is in contrast to the School Sports Organising Welcome to all of our Primary and Secondary schools this academic year. We would like to thank school staff for all their continued Crew training, when staff are present for the whole session and therefore have a better understanding of what their pupils achieved support in teaching, coaching and encouraging their young people in P.E. School Sport and Physical Activity throughout the autumn and how they got there. and winter terms. The HSSP continues to support and advise many Primary Schools in their P.E. Action Plan (under 5 key indicator headings) for the year which needs updating on school websites in April and July. We are currently awaiting a decision from Having run leadership sessions for several years, I often meet children who have taken part in one of these courses and it is Government about the continued Primary P.E. Premium funding beyond August 2020, we are hopeful. And with this in mind we at the something that they remember fondly. Of course, leadership doesn’t stop at primary school. HSSP plan to continue to offer paid primary school sport services for the 2020-2021 academic year, we will be sending out our HSSP Rainham School for Girls run level 1 and 2 sports leaders courses menu in the coming months. and help the HSSP at several events throughout the year. They We continue to actively encourage and enable primary and secondary schools to apply for the national School Games Mark Awards provided leaders for the year 5 & 6 Sports Hall Athletics competition (Bronze/Silver/Gold and Platinum criteria now available). The online application opens on 6th May 2020 and closes on 5th August 2020 and again at the Kent competition. and includes all your school’s achievements for the 2019-2020 academic year. Your school’s application will need to be internally verified Later this week, they will provide leaders to help at the KS2 multi by your School Games Organiser (SGO). Schools need to register in advance online at the website: www.yourschoolgames.com There skills festival. Rainham Girls are renowned for producing excellent are many pre-requisites for schools to carry out before starting the application form: Inclusion Health Check and registering on the leaders, which makes the organisers job so much easier. The PE www.activeschoolplanner.org website to show your school is working towards at least 30mins of daily physical activity for every child staff believe that, by participating in these courses, “their students at school as well as encouraging 30mins of physical activity for every child every day at home/in their leisure time. The HSSP staff are inspired to develop important life skills”. Perhaps more schools are available to meet with teachers to support them through the application process in the spring and summer of 2020 and up to and including late July 2020. should run leadership courses and allow their students to experience what it feels like to lead and develop as people with employability Well done to those schools that successfully applied and gained their national school games mark award for last year 2018-2019. skills. Rainham School for Girls Sports Team Leaders at the Kent School Games GAIL HALLS - SSCo GOLD (9): Burnt Oak Primary, Chattenden Primary, Bredhurst Primary, Saxon Way Primary, Hilltop Primary,The Howard School, Brompton Academy, Accademy of Woodlands, New Horizons SILVER (7): St. Thomas of Canterbury Primary, Bryony School, Brompton Westbrook Primary, St. Margaret’s Junior, Fairview Primary, Hempstead Junior, Swingate Primary HSSP SCHOOL SPORTS ORGANISING CREW TRAINING BRONZE (3): Park Wood Juniors, Cedar Children’s Academy, All Faiths - December 2019 GRAND TOTAL OVERALL: 19 Eleven HSSP Primary Schools took part in the annual HSSP We are also working closely with the Medway Teach School Alliance (MTSA) and the majority of Medway Secondary School P.E. School Sports Crew Organiser training in December 2019, at the Departments. to apply for allocated Sport England Lottery funding, which is specifically available for training, cover and course attendance Howard School. Here we trained (year 5 and 6’s): Sports Captains, for P.E. staff. The idea behind this funding is to survey both pupil needs/ideas on what sports/physical activities they would like to take part Sports Designers, Sports Statisticians and Sports Designers to in on the P.E. curriculum and during extra-curricular times and a survey to find out P.E staff’s training needs. And based upon the results assist their Primary P.E. Co-ordinators. of these surveys and working together across Medway Secondary Schools a wider range of sport’s governing body training courses will They lead on some projects like: helping teachers to organise be held for Medway P.E. staff. Hence, in the longer term, a wider range of P.E./Sports and physical activities/leadership opportunities will some intra-school sports competitions, keeping the school be available for Medway Secondary School P.E. Department staff, through this funding opportunity. In a bid to encourage all pupils to website/social media/P.E. noticeboard up to date and ensuring participate in a wider range of P.E/Sport and physical activities at school and educate students to keep fit and physically active for life. that the profile of school sport/P.E. and the importance of every We have just finished the Kent School Games winter finals, many of which have taken place at Medway Park and well done to the child in undertaking 30 minutes minimum of physical activity every following teams who won their local Medway school sports competitions and hence qualified for these finals: day, at school, is kept high in their classrooms back at Primary School. Sports Hall Athletics (yr 5 & 6) - Academy of Woodlands came 7th Sports Reporters learning from Beach Ball training for Sports Crew Sports Hall Athletics boys (yr 7 & 8) - Rainham Mark Grammar School Boys came 5th and 7th CLAIRE MOORE - SGO and PDM Miss Mann - 5th December 2019 - 5th December 2019 Sports Hall Athletics girls (yr 7 & 8) - Chatham Grammar Girls came 5th and 2nd U13 Girls Handball - Brompton Academy 2nd and Hundred of Hoo Academy 3rd U15 Girls Handball - Chatham Grammar Girls 2nd and Rainham Girls 3rd HSSP ACTIVE HEALTH AMBASSADOR TRAINING IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS U13 Boys Handball - Rainham Mark Grammar came 1st and Brompton Academy 3rd - Planned for Thursday 2nd July 2020 U15 Boys Handball - Strood Academy 4th Five primary schools attended our first HSSP Health Ambassador training session in July 2019. 8 Health Ambassadors were needed U14 Girls ELITE Badminton - Rainham Girls 2nd and Rainham Mark Grammar 5th from one school to attend the HSSP Active Health Conference with their teacher to find out about more facts on healthy eating and U16 Girls ELITE Badminton - Rainham Mark Grammar 2nd drinking (with help from staff at the Medway Council Public Health Team) and the importance of all children doing daily physical U14 Girls DEV. Badminton - Brompton Academy 4th, Chatham Grammar girls 7th activities (at least 30 minutes at school and 30 minutes at home every day). U16 Girls DEV. Badminton - Chatham Grammar 4th Brompton Academy Girls U13 2nd place team Kent School Games - Hundred of Hoo 7th Handball finals - February 2020 After much discussion and learning the teams of Health Ambassadors and teachers practised the delivery of a ‘Health Assembly’ U14 Boys DEV. Badminton for the whole school covering subjects like: 5 fruit/veg. a day, saturated fats, food labels, salt and re-thinking your ‘sugary drinks’. Primary Basketball (yr 5 & 6) - Academy of Woodlands came 1st Health Ambassadors who were selected by their teachers as good role models, also learnt many ideas on how to keep young Secondary Sat. Club Basketball - Boys: Rainham Mark Grammar boys 5th, Brompton Academy 14th, Strood Academy 16th and plate winners people physically active at school such as the Daily Mile / Wake Up and Shake Up in class / Active Playgrounds at break time / Active Girls: Rainham Girls ‘A’ 4th, Rainham Girls ‘B’ 7th and Rainham Mark Grammar 8th and plate event winners Lessons and many other ideas and they enjoyed keeping active themselves.