Sport

Sports days are always exciting events, but these took on even greater significance It was a Summer Term like no other for sport at KPS. this year... We were constantly aware of changing situations rules and ideas, trying, like everyone, to balance the need for safety while trying to provide the broadest range of sporting opportunities possible.

The Summer Term started and our games lessons began with 3 weeks of netball and hockey as these were the sports students had missed out on over the Spring Term. We then got into the swing of our more traditional summer sport, cricket. However, even this was affected, as the need to share equipment made hard-ball games for our older pupils a non-starter. We had a slightly different focus this year across all these sports – we were asking ourselves how we could maximise movement and safe social interaction after so long apart, but also how we could keep up the students’ teamwork skills and develop their abilities within the different sports we played. In our PE lessons we had similar aims – could we use athletics, tennis and gymnastics to get the children moving again, working cooperatively, developing their skills and simply enjoying the experience of being physically active again.

As with everything else, the restrictions created by COVID also created a great opportunity to learn for everyone – including us teachers. We have been moving towards a more games-based approach to all our PE and Games over the past few years and changes to the way we had to do things has accelerated this change and convinced me about the way forward – which looks less and less like what people might consider the “traditional approach.”

Eventually, fixtures returned to our agenda, albeit in quite a different way than normal. Our renewed desire to ensure the best possible experiences for the children meant the same high levels of competition, enthusiasm but far less strict rules with greater focus on the experience of the children, more adaptations of approach to suit the children involved, flexibility of sports and increased collaboration. These were all things we had struggled to achieve in years gone by but as a consequence of COVID, school sport now looks more like the experience I want it to than ever before.

Sports days are always exciting events, but these took on even greater significance than normal this year, not least because it was the first (and only!) parentattended event of the whole school year! Again, the disrupted year worked in favour here as we were able to make these true sports days – focussing on far more than athletics. They also provided an opportunity to share how our approach to PE and Games has changed, but still works really well for the children.

We often have a discussion about non-competitive vs competitive sports days and – in my opinion – these events showed that true competition and achievement does not need medals and thankfully the recent Olympic games have also shown this to the case at the highest possible level. ...simply enjoying the experience of being physically active again.