Primary Schools Athletics Festival

As part of our annual Activity Days, Grange School staff and students hosted primary school pupils for an Athletics Festival. During the festival primary school pupils took part in a mini-Olympics.

Aims

Enhancing existing educational provision
Providing leadership experience for Grange students

Critical to success of the project is the provision of specialist staff and facilities from The Grange School to host the Athletics Festival.

The partnership is mutually beneficial. Pupils from primary schools benefit from specialist sports sessions in a secondary environment, providing an excellent bridge to secondary school. Grange School students benefit from developing their leadership skills and giving them experience with younger students.

Background

Primary schools workshops have been established as part of the Activity Days programme for over 10 years. The workshops are designed and marketed by Grange School staff and interested primary schools sign up to the sessions that fit best to enhance their provision. Due to the positive experience, the vast majority of the schools have been taking part in this style of workshop for a number of years.

Resources

Critical to the success of the project are the time and efforts of Grange School staff and students to devise stimulating sessions, liaising with the staff from the various primary schools to ensure that these are academically challenging but suitable in nature. The Grange School also funds the cost of transports to allow primary school pupils to attend.

Key resources include:

Use of The Grange Sports Facilities
Time and efforts committed by Grange School teaching staff
Time and efforts committed by Grange School support staff to help with logistics
Time by Grange School students

The Grange School pays for transportation for the primary school pupils to access the workshops and for refreshments for the day.

Impact

Key qualitative impacts include:

Positive feedback from Grange school staff & students
Positive feedback from partner school staff & students
Chance for all students to engage in collaborative learning
Enhanced existing provision in place
Enhanced skills of all students involved

When liaising with the primary schools, all commented upon the high quality nature of the provision and how much their pupils enjoyed the session.

After every year, the Activity Day programme is reviewed and evaluated to ensure that the programme is mutually beneficial.

Pupil Involvement

In 2019 63 primary school pupils (all of Year 4 age) took part in the workshops. Each workshop was supported by 3 Grange staff and 30 Sixth Form students.

Frequency

The festival lasted for 2 hours and as part of the Activity Day programme, takes place annually. The subjects offered can vary slightly according to staff availability and demand from primary schools. The intention is to run the sessions again.