“We want our staff teaching and delivering PE lessons and we also want the children accessing the enrichment activities and additional activities that we don’t currently have the resources for. We wanted to give them the opportunity to try things they wouldn’t normally get to do.”
Louise Stone
Higher Level Teaching Assistant
The School
Teaching can be a tough profession. It takes patience and persistence to help pupils to learn the skills they need to succeed in life. When it comes to PE in any school, it’s usually mixed reviews throughout the year groups. Some pupils are ready and raring to go with their squeaky-clean football boots, others dread the idea of being forced outside to exercise and engage in sport.
At Mountbatten Primary School, they are very lucky to have two outside playground areas, one for key stage one and one for key stage two. There is also a small outdoor area for the foundation year and finally, two large fields that can be used for PE activities and lunchtimes. Recently, the school has also installed some child-friendly gym equipment on the playground to encourage more physical activity during breaks. The space available here was second to none and needed to be used to its full potential and that it’s great to see that now starting to take shape.
The Challenge
At Mountbatten Primary, the pupils already had an excellent PE curriculum with amazing staff to run the lessons. They had the traditional sports you would expect to find as well as some untraditional ones like softball, badminton, and table tennis which remain in place. What they wanted was to enrich their curriculum and take it to the next level. With more variation than they could possibly ask for, First Step PE would be able to cover those additional sports all under one roof.
The amount of time taken, resources needed, and training required to set up a game of orienteering internally was something that could be avoided by going through an external PE provider. The equipment needed to run activities such as an archery lesson or pop-lacrosse was something that could be provided and implemented in very little time by using First Step’s services.
The Solution
The last academic year was the first year working with the school. With help from the PE premium provided by the government, the school decided to make use of their additional funding by implementing our enrichment activities. Sports like fencing, archery, and Yoga Tots to name a few. Moreover, the school was reviewing their provider for their cycle training and was able to make use of our services here as well.
First Step Cycle not only offers Bikeability courses for the older pupils, they also offer pre pedal for the early years pupils. Go Scoot was also something the school were new to, which they took advantage of after seeing many pupils traveling this way. The school also benefited from receiving a free cycle helmet for each child, a welcome addition to the package which they didn’t have previously.
The Result
The children have been thrilled with all the variety on offer as they can be sure that there will be something for them. With all the new experiences, they have been very focused and visibly more engaged as they try things for the first time. They show their excitement for the lessons before and after. Those children who would’ve previously been disinterested in physical activity, are now more open to PE. The next year promises to be even better as the school has decided to continue for the next academic year and will be able to incorporate even more of our lessons.
“The children loved the archery and the fencing because it’s something that they wouldn’t have ever expected to do”.
Louise Stone
Higher Level Teaching Assistant
