Sports Roundup It is always nice to be asked to write something for our alumni, and it is a fantastic chance for me to share what is happening at our school with you. With the pandemic restrictions easing, Truro School is starting to look a lot busier and, for me (having only seen one full year before the pandemic), it is wonderful to see the Truro School machine back in action.
DAN SANDERSON DIRECTOR OF SPORT
djs@truroschool.com
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The opportunities that our pupils have are breathtaking, and our co-curricular offering is a real feather in our cap. Music, art, drama, cookery (oh yes, and sport) and other activities give our pupils a chance to socialise, explore a little deeper and, best of all, have fun. Speaking of fun, I won’t bore you with a list of achievements; all that can be found on our social media pages and websites (@TruroSport via Instagram, Twitter and Facebook). Instead, here is a little bit of what we are doing in PE, games and sport. Covid could have been a challenging time during remote learning (thanks, Joe Wicks), but our department found it to be a very successful one. The focus shifted slightly and we were able to really become creative and as people looked to keep active in lockdown; the simple joy of walking, running, cycling and swimming (I hope you still live in Cornwall…!) returned with a vengeance. No teacher telling you what to do, no annoying classmates... bliss...! We, as a department, focused on creating good environments and good habits. We found the less ‘sporty’ pupils engaged with this the best, and some stunning work was submitted and new passions were formed. Since the return to school, the traditional ‘sporty’ pupils have filled their boots (and why not, sport is great fun), but the less ‘sporty’ have continued to be active, engaged and willing to try new activities. The only downside of this being that I am running out of space to facilitate it all. A nice problem to have though. Whilst participation is fairly high across most areas of the school in fixtures (67% of pupils have represented the school in a fixture this academic year), there have of course been dips in the exam year groups. It will always be our duty to promote the benefits of sport and leading an active lifestyle, as we know that stress and anxiety can be eased with exercise, especially in teenagers (and, of course, adults, you and me included, so keep active!).
Our P.E. and games curriculum gives all our pupils equal access to all that we offer. Of course, what we do is teaching our pupils the physical benefits of good activity levels, but in curriculum lessons I want our focus to be more than that. I believe that P.E. and sport is the perfect vehicle to teach our pupils about the ‘soft’ skills they will need throughout their life. Resilience, empathy, teamwork, persistence, emotional intelligence... buzz words maybe to some, but we really put a lot of emphasis on qualities such as these during our lessons. The sport/activity is the easy bit to teach, and we celebrate high-achieving pupils, but we are after more than making good sports people. We are after making good people, through sport. In P.E., we have added outdoor education, gymnastics, handball and dance (my favourite lesson, the pupils love it!) to our KS3 curriculum. These sit alongside our rackets, swimming and health-related fitness classes, amongst others. In games, we have split the year into five sports, with boys and girls taking part in all of them. Rugby, netball, football, hockey and striking and fielding (cricket, rounders, softball etc) all run for six weeks each. It has been a real joy to see our pupils test themselves in different and unfamiliar sports, and it is refreshing to see stereotypical attitudes being discarded. For our older year groups, they are able to choose their games lessons activities. So far, swimming, trampolining, exercise to music, fitness suite, football and oldschool ball games have proved popular, and the pupils can choose a new activity each half term. I am very keen for games sessions to be driven by our KS4 pupils and I value high pupil engagement. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more about what we offer in P.E., games and sport at Truro School, it would be great to hear from you.
