Monday 5th October is World Teachers’ Day. Whilst teachers face many challenges throughout their teaching career, 2020 will take some beating!

We are immensely proud of all our teachers and the way that they embraced remote working to ensure continuity of learning for all of our pupils. None more so than our Director of Sport, Dan King who, with his dedicated team, revolutionised the way PE and Sport was delivered at The Grove during lockdown. We caught up with Mr King to find out how he achieved these amazing results in such difficult circumstances.

What were the key challenges to delivering PE throughout Lockdown? 

The lack of human and social interaction between staff and students was very hard, we really missed having the students in school. One of the main challenges was trying to be innovative and creative with our challenges to keep students interested and active throughout the Summer Term. We are proud of our high participation rates in sport and wanted to maintain these during lockdown. We were also conscious of the amount of screen time that students were undertaking in order to complete the PE sessions and challenges.

What was your vision for what you wanted to achieve? 

Our key aims were; to create an inclusive programme that met the needs of all students; to create fun and engaging challenges for the students to take part in e.g. London to Toyko; to get students away from the screens, outside and active.

What was the response?

We had really positive engagement from students, especially when it came to House competitions and individual challenges – which was very rewarding. In addition, we received a lot of appreciative emails and letters from parents who recognised the excellent provision being offered to get students taking part in exercise, and positively impacting on both their physical and mental well-being.

All of the above would not have been possible without the Grove PE department, who responded fantastically to the challenge. Staff at home created a variety of skill development videos in a range of sports for students to complete, as well as a Gold, Silver and Bronze challenge each week. Other members of the department recorded HIIT and Core sessions for students to take part in. This ensured we delivered an inclusive and varied provision for students across all year groups. We also organised Live Staff HIIT sessions 3 times a week. It was great to get staff active and involved in some social interaction.

What was your PE highlight during this period? 

Without a doubt, creating the Staff ‘Pass the Ball’ video which was watched by more than 15,000 people and led to the creation of a Students ‘Pass the Ball’ montage from various sports teams across the school. If you haven’t seen it yet, here it is below……

 

And finally…..  

Lockdown presented many challenges but we are thoroughly enjoying having the whole school community back together again!

I am every teacher who has inspired me.

I am Grovian.