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Velodream
This exciting journey towards London 2012 started in November 2007, when we entered and subsequently won, the eastern region of the Velodream competition, the finals of which included a trip to the site of the London games and the offices of LOCOG.
Since then, we have had success in the Sainsbury's Active Talk (please be patient this takes a while to download!) competition, reaching another final, and the values of the Olympics have become a core part of our curriculum.
In April 2008, we attended the DFES conference in London which considered ways in which schools could benefit from the potential provided by the values of the Olympic movement.
We celebrated Paralympic Handover (September 17th 2008) as a whole school, a fantastic day which included a whole school assembly, writing personal challenges, designing ‘London 2012’ tail planes, designing ‘Olympic Medals’, races with judges, photographers and timekeepers, and, finally, a whole school ‘dance’ which ended with all children from nursery to year 6 forming the ‘Olympic Rings’ on the school field.
We have had several visits from Olympians and Paralympians, which have all been so interesting for the children. These include:
· Team GB handball player, Louise Jukes, who has been in regular contact with the children since we first met her a year ago. They now wish to participate in this relatively unknown sport and we have begun to play a simplified version with the Year 6 children which is proving to be a great success.
· Richard Kruse, an Olympic fencer, who has also talked to the children about his sport and enthused many of the pupils, who also showed us pictures of his time at the 2008 Olympics.
· Karen Pickering of Team Ipswich, who came in and was interviewed by the children about what made her take up swimming as a career.
· Brian Alldis, a wheelchair athlete from Bury St Edmunds, who has recently been into school and spent time with all the children from reception to year 6, an incredibly inspirational young man.
· Leon Griffin, a father of two children in our school, won medals in the Commonwealth Games; he came and talked to the children in year 6
Recently we have had visits from Sascha Kindred, Elena Baltacha, Jordan Rhodes, Abbie Thorrington and Andrew Simpson as well as having made contact with Phillips Idowu and Gillian Cooke.
All these athletes have encouraged our children to succeed to the highest level in whatever field they decide on.
As a result of this, we were invited to make a presentation to two hundred PE coordinators (please be patient this takes a while to download!) in Suffolk in order to inspire them to use the potential that the Olympics provides to encourage pupils to take an active part in the Cultural Olympiad.
We have also recently made a short documentary which is one of a series being used to promote the East of England's contribution to the London 2012 Games and how the region has maximised the benefits so far. This was launched at the Nations and Regions East (NRE) Regional Summit 2008/09, on March 3rd 2009 at Adastral Park, Ipswich, to which we attended and presented a display of children's work and the school's achievements so far.
So, for the future?
The 'Wall of Challenges', which has been funded through donations from Sir Keith Mills, a grant from the Council’s Locality Budget, much appreciated support from the PFA and voluntary contributions from parents will be completed in 2010, a lasting legacy of London 2012.
As a school, we are all, (approximately 450 staff and children, from 3 - 11), writing a challenge as part of the idea which was launched on the Paralympic Handover section of the London 2012 website which asked people to complete the sentence 'By 2012 I'm going to join in and......'.
Having thought of our challenges, we are transferring them to ceramic tiles (15cm square) and decorating them in the colours of the five Olympic Rings. These are then being fired and glazed by a local company, 'Jars of Clay' in Woodbridge, whose support is incredible. Otley College is then going to use the students they have completing a tiling course to put them up on the outside wall of our school which will become a centre piece to the town community of Kesgrave. Working closely with the East of England Development Agency to inspire children across the eastern region, we are opening the opportunity to join in with us and to make a difference to the community by asking families, past pupils and local businesses to state their group aims on a tile which will form part of our wall.
We have inspired our children by obtaining challenges from over thirty Olympic athletes and sports personalities including Ade Adepitan, Ben Ainsley, Beth Tweddle, Tom Daley, Nicole Cooke, Tim Brabants, Kris Akabusi, Louis Smith, Sharon Davies and Fabian Wilnis; Sir Keith Mills, Deputy Chairman of LOCOG, who visited our school as part of his visit to Suffolk in June 2008, and Jonathan Edwards, the athletes' representative on LOCOG, have also sent us challenges. Adam Baker, Suffolk 2012 Project Manager, has encouraged local prospective Olympians to join in with their challenges. To widen the cultural aspect, we have contacted authors and illustrators who have also contributed.
We have involved the Town Council in our plans and have become involved in the town plan which will give the children the opportunity to state their hopes for the development of Kesgrave.
We are continually looking at ways of widening our school's involvement with the games, including using our Learning Platform to link with schools both in other parts of the UK and across the world. Hopefully, this will encourage our children to learn about other cultures, attitudes and opinions, having a long term effect on their outlook of others.
Having been featured on the London 2012 website three times, local county magazines (see pages 12 and 13) and newspapers, we feel that we are inspiring youngsters to 'Get Involved' and they are benefiting hugely from this work and hope that you can see the benefits to the school as a whole.If you want to look at our London 2012 blog which contains details of all our friends, click on the following link:
We are now honoured to be able to use the London 2012 'Get Set' mark, having been selected as one of the first 16 schools in the country to have reached the standards required.
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