Goffs Academy move the goalposts!
We were very pleased to award a PE minor award to Goffs Academy after a long time trying to coordinate schedules. Kevin Yardley, Director of Income Generation, submitted a strong bid for two pairs of portable match goals for small-sided games to be used on their superb 3G pitch.
Kevin explained the popularity of small-sided games and the rapid increase of skills they foster. The goals will help all pupils in the school, particularly those opting for football in GCSE PE assessment and their many after-school clubs, but the benefit extends much further. Following confirmation of the award, Goffs have begun arranging to act as a match and tournament hub for their local primary schools. The equipment will also attract even more community organisations to hire their pitch and thus generate more income to benefit the school.
We wish them well with their football and look forward to some photographs of their first 7 a-side tournament.
In November 2019, Kevin expalined the impact of the purchase....
The goals allowed us to host the local primary football tournaments meaning students from across the borough could enjoy the 3G pitch, our P.E. department benefited from the new equipment in lessons and after school clubs.
The Reach throw their hat into the ring!
Boxing seems to be becoming a popular form of exercise in schools and so we were delighted to fund a round of training from Boxercise for 8 staff at The Reach Free School.
As Matt Sutton, Head of PE, put it in his application: “the trained staff will be able to lead lessons for all students during our healthy and active lifestyles units of work, engaging them with classes that represent the real world of fitness. This will hopefully give them a lifelong interest in fitness and personal wellbeing.
Support staff will be able to incorporate the activities into our mentoring programme and students will be able to select it as an elective club. The mentoring programme would mean some of our most vulnerable students could be engaged to talk and grow in confidence from small group work with their designated members of staff.”
We were very impressed with The Reach’s programme of elective activities at the end of the normal school day and their commitment to foster a life-long enjoyment of exercise in all their pupils. Extending boxing’s promotion of self-confidence coupled with self-discipline to small groups of vulnerable students greatly enhanced their bid, especially as they plan to have a non-PE mentor participate in the training.
Parmiter’s Submit a Knock-Out Bid!
We are delighted to award Parmiter’s School in Watford a PE Minor Award to train a whole squad of of staff members in Boxercise.
Tom Clarke, Head of PE, sent detailed information and links about the supplier and explained the economies of scale of bringing the Boxercise trainers into school rather than sending some staff out to one of their training courses. As more staff can be trained, Boxercise can be also added to their wide range of after-school clubs as well. Tom strengthened his bid by also managing to secure funding for equipment from the PTA if his training application to us was successful.
Parmiter’s PE department and senior management are very keen to expand their KS4 curriculum in particular and they firmly believe Boxercise will attract some of their disengaged pupils as it is something different. They have had great success with other non-standard offers such as Zumba and step-aerobics and informally surveyed pupils to confirm their enthusiasm for Boxercise.
We readily agreed with their argument that Boxercise will also help develop self-discipline and confidence and promote exercise as an enjoyable activity – all of which helps embed a lifelong love of fitness and sports. We are very interested to hear about these relative character effects on boys and girls after the course has been running for a while.
As a final fillip to his bid, Tom was able to have the new course set up early next year as there was a training slot available this December – very impressive!
Cutting Edge Equipment for St Mary's CE High School
We are very pleased to give a double award to St Mary's - one for STEM and one for Effective Learning. The school had to work hard for the awards as their original applications lacked some specific details about the items being requested, the need for them and their precise benefits. However, after supplying us with the requested details, it was clear that both projects were very worthwhile and fitted our criteria well.
The STEM award will buy St Mary's a Draper variable speed metalwork lathe which they desperately need for the students on their new BTEC engineering course. Their existing lathe is only useable with wood so the new one will not only ensure the full range of experience in the BTEC, but open the doors for a T level course in the near future. The STEM award also included a new oscilloscope and software to replace their outdated equipment. The new, multifunctional apparatus will link to their network and is far easier to use as well as being much closer to equipment their young physicists will use at university and in the real world.
St Mary's Effective also put in an Effective Learning bid for a type of project we haven't received before - a high quality video camera and playback system to support coaching and mentoring for teachers and other classroom staff. The school will record lessons, without the pressure of having a human observer in the room, and then the recordings can be used as a clear basis for discussing strengths and areas for improvement in teaching and learning etc. We thought this was a fantastic way to make learning more effective, with the lessons learned helping not only the recorded staff but all other teachers and classroom assistants. The training benefits will help all staff involved and their pupils for the remainder of their careers and so gained a big tick in our longevity criteria box.
Herts and Essex serve up an ace application.
We were very pleased to hear from The Hertfordshire and Essex High School and Science College again this year and even happier to be able to grant them an award for two sets of socketed tennis posts and nets.
Hayley Jones (Asst. Head and Director of Sport) wrote a strong application detailing the limitations on existing access to tennis sessions both in lesson time and for extra-curricular sessions. The removable nets will help them make double-use of their netball courts immediately and also add flexibility to their new sports centre when it is completed next year. Hayley aims to make tennis available all year and the nets will be available for community clubs' use in the new sports facility.