Games Legacy for Scotland

May 30th, 2012: Sailing for Olympic Gold by Jennifer McDougall; FMacAskill; Comments: none

Join us in Glow TV on Thursday 31st May at 12pm to meet another inspirational Olympian – double gold medal-winning sailor Shirley Robertson who will be speaking at Perth Grammar during the school Olympic-themed fundraising day.

Shirley Robertson OBE made it into the history books by becoming the first British woman to win two Olympic Gold Medals at consecutive games, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. Shirley has gone on to develop a highly
successful media career including work with the BBC and CNN. She will be visiting Perth Grammar to tell the compelling and inspirational story of her personal journey to achieve her dreams and to support S1 pupils with their Olympic challenges. This will be part of the school fundraising day when all pupils will be involved in a sponsored walk to raise more funds for Sport Relief.

April 24th, 2012: Passion for Paralympics; FMacAskill; Comments: none

As you are no doubt aware Ottobock and the International Paralympic Committee are holding a ‘Passion for Paralympics’ exhibition at the Glasgow Science Centre. In order to further promote this exciting event we have organised a Glow Meet from the centre on the opening day of the exhibition, with the aim of encouraging as many schools as possible to learn more about the athletes involved, the innovative technology used and the values inherent in the Paralympic Games.

We would love you to join us live from the ‘Passion for Paralympics’ exhibition through this exciting Glow Meet featuring British Paralympian, Jonathan Paterson from Motherwell, Scotland.
In addition we are also delighted to welcome Minister for Commonwealth Games and Sport, Shona Robison MSP who will also be taking part in the Glow Meet.

The exhibition is designed to create excitement for the London 2012 Paralympic Games and spread the Paralympic values of courage, determination, inspiration and equality. The exhibition also includes a history of the Paralympic Games, from its beginnings in Stoke Mandeville. It will inspire the nation to get behind the British Paralympic Team and provide an unprecedented welcome for the international athletes who will be in London to challenge them!

During the event viewers will have an opportunity to hear why Ottobock has a ‘Passion for Paralympics, Games Legacy for Scotland as well as being able to hear directly from Paralympian Jonathan Paterson who has just been named as one of the 22 footballers who will represent Great Britain at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

It will be Jonathan’s second Paralympic Games, having helped the seven-a-side team finish seventh in Beijing. Find out more about his experiences and his hopes for the London 2012 Paralympic Games by asking him your own questions live on the day.

http://bit.ly/passionforparalympics

Date and time: 26^th April 2012 10.45

Programme Duration: 45 minutes

April 23rd, 2012: Olympic athletes can do amazing things, and so can your students when they get ‘In the Zone’!; FMacAskill; Comments: none

In the Zone science investigation kits are now in UK schools and colleges and you can open yours today! Brimming with scientific equipment, teaching resources and experiments, students can explore their lung capacities, heart rates, reaction times, the power in their muscles and how much carbon dioxide is produced before and after exercise.

‘The kit gives inspiration to our teaching and enables a focus on group work and sharing.’ Hannora Loveday, Deputy Head, St Pauls Way Trust.

If you’d like to see how the project fits within the curriculum, click here for the primary sector and here for secondary. Inside your kit you’ll find a teaching guide (also available online). It contains lesson plans for each year group and a helpful guide outlining what the objectives are for each lesson, which resources to use from the kit or website and preparation tips.

To introduce the project to your pupils, use one of the In the Zone assemblies:

For primary schools: In the Zone Primary assembly or BBC World Class In the Zone assembly

For ages 11-19: BBC World Class In the Zone assembly

“In the Zone is a great way to translate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games fever into genuine learning.” Sir Steve Redgrave CBE, five-time Olympic gold medallist

If you have any questions about getting started or about the resources do get in touch.

Email: [email protected]

April 18th, 2012: #CitizenRelay - Recruiting budding reporters!; FMacAskill; Comments: 2 Comments »

#CitizenRelay (www.citizenrelay.net) is a participatory project which relies on the involvement of people from across Scotland to report on the untold local stories and creative ways that Scotland’s citizens are interacting with the Olympic Games.

#CitizenRelay is looking for around 50-60 people from across Scotland to become CitizenRelay Reporters, providing a great opportunity for young learners to develop their literacy skills by reporting on various aspects of the Games. If you are successful you will receive training from other journalists on aspects such as blogging, creating podcasts, interviewing people and capturing the Torch Relay on camera.

Getting Involved

If you or the young learners you work with are over 16 and wish to report on the activities taking place in the local community, school or workplace then why not become a CitizenReporter? Applications should take the form of a 200-word pitch and should be submitted, by an appropriate member of staff from the school, before the end of May.

Should you wish to apply directly to #CitizenRelay then email David at [email protected]

Alternatively please contact me through [email protected]

Background

The project is funded by Creative Scotland and has a range of partners including the University of the West of Scotland Skillset Media Academy (http://www.uwsmediaacademy.com/), somewhere_to (http://somewhereto.com/), Citizens Eye (http://www.citizenseye.org/), the Media Trust (http://newsnet.mediatrust.org/) and other universities and colleges in Scotland. The project will be tracking the Torch Relay across Scotland in a mobile fashion empowering people from all walks of life to become their own media producers.

Travel and subsistence expenses will be provided for attendance at training and during the reporting of the Torch Relay itself. Training events are taking place in Inverness (3rd May), Aberdeen (4th May), Glasgow (5th May) and Edinburgh (6th May).

April 4th, 2012: Olympic Storytelling Competition; FMacAskill; Comments: none

The greatest show on earth deserves the greatest storytellers and Leisure & Sport for Dumfries & Galloway Council found their best storytellers who clearly demonstrated creativity through the rich context of the Olympic Games.

The children were invited to the Annandale & Eskdale Sports Awards where they were rewarded for their efforts by Lynn McCafferty, Team GB Olympic Handball Captain.

In joint 3^rd place was Yasmin Henderson, 10 from Eaglesfield Primary who wrote about heptathlete Jessica Ennis and why she is her inspiration which also included a short poem. Joining her in 3^rd was Lauren Warrick, 10 from Heckligirth Primary in Annan whose story was titled London 2012. She wrote about past greats and her fictional story of winning in the Olympic pool.

The final three were hard to separate but the panel, made up of officers from Leisure and Sport, the museum curator and councillors, settled for a joint runner up award. This was shared between Eve Irving, 11 from St Columba’s Primary who wrote about cyclist Charline Joiner as her inspiration and Paul Kitzinger, whose poem about an Olympic cross country event was linked to the values of the games.

The winner, after much deliberation, went to 7 year old Hope Elliot from Hecklegirth Primary School whose knowledge about the Ancient Greek Games and the Olympic Torch coupled with some fantastic drawings was deservedly named the best Olympic Storyteller in Annandale & Eskdale.

Sports Development Officer Calum Graham who organised the competition said “We received a number of imaginative and fun articles about the Olympic Games and it gave the judges a number of difficult decisions. It is fantastic to see some of the stories and how young Hope had researched the games, demonstrating how the Olympics goes far beyond sport into other areas of life. The standard was so good that many of the articles will now be used in the Annandale & Eskdale Sport Academy “Our Olympic Museum” which will open in June.

April 2nd, 2012: Linlithgow Games 2012; FMacAskill; Comments: none

Schools in Linlithgow are going to hold their own Games in May.

As a result of the Olympics being held in London, they have developed the Linlithgow Games 2012.

The existing Developmental Physical Education programme has been expanded to incorporate the Olympic and Paralympic theme into the curriculum across the Linlithgow Academy cluster schools (9 primary schools, 1 secondary school and Donaldson’s).

Each school has chosen a country to investigate for the duration of the school year and this will culminate in a whole-cluster mini-Olympic and Paralympic Games on the 9 May 2012.

All schools have been encouraged to develop a range of activities across all stages to develop the theme, and they have adopted the values of the Olympics and Paralympics to meet many experiences and outcomes particularly in health and well being, literacy, numeracy, expressive arts and social subjects. This process has involved working with the pupils in a variety of different ways including investigating their chosen country, designing menus, writing biographies of athletes, enterprise projects, and creating blogs to name a few.

One of the main components of the Linlithgow Games are sports festivals with a total of 19 festivals being organised throughout the academic year. The festivals that are offered are, where possible, linked to a local sports club, and include rugby, netball, gymnastics, tennis, athletics, football, cricket, hockey, cross country, handball, dance, benchball.

On 9 May 2012 when the Linlithgow Games are held approximately 1700 school aged children take part in a series of competitions. The day will commence with an opening ceremony at the local football club. The ceremony will consist of the final leg of the torch relay tour, an Olympic Choir, a display by Linlithgow Academy pupils and Firework Display. Each school will walk into their national anthem with the mascots that the pupils chose and designed. Following on from this each year group will participate in a sports festival.

Andrew Miller, education councillor at West Lothian Council, said: “The Linlithgow Olympics will capture the excitement of the games and increase participation in sporting activities within the community. It has so many different strands to it and there’s a real sense of community spirit that brings together pupils from across Linlithgow.”

April 2nd, 2012: Lasswade High School Get Set; FMacAskill; Comments: none

Pupils at Lasswade High School have been learning how sport can bring communities together at local, national and international levels.

International Inspiration

In 2009 Lasswade joined the International Inspiration programme which is funded through London 2012 and partners schools in the UK with schools throughout the world. The aim is to inspire young people to be involved in sport.

George Falconer, Head of Physical Education, explains:

“Our partner school is Pahama Secondary school in South Africa. The programme has seen teachers from both countries visiting the other to share ideas and expertise. The South African link is known to all pupils through assemblies and updated through noticed boards and emails.

“The pupils have also started their own International Inspirations Club which is developing further links with South Africa. This project has been extremely valuable in developing the four capacities for Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). Our pupils have a greater understanding of the world around them and the role of Scotland within it.

Get Set

“The school registered in the ‘Get Set’ programme in 2009 due to our Int In involvement. The programme aims to inspire young people to become involved in the Olympics in London and encourage them to live by the Olympic values.

“Senior pupils take a lead role in this project leading assemblies in both primary and secondary. The pupils have also organised Olympic events for each year group to promote the Olympic values.

“In 2010 the school was successful in applying to the next level in the ‘Get Set Network’ which is for schools which have demonstrated commitment to the values. Our school was one of the first schools in Scotland to be given this accreditation. The school also won the Olympic mascot competition and were rewarded with the mascot being launched at our school.

“The Olympic theme is very prevalent in the whole school ethos. There is currently an Interdisciplinary Learning project involving PE, PSE, Modern Studies, RMPS, Drama and Art. The group works within the CfE framework of outcomes and experiences relating to the Olympic value of Respect. Each subject area includes respect in their classroom lessons and link and time these to coincide with other departments. Subjects work together under the common theme and drive through the Health and Wellbeing outcomes across the school.”

More information about the International Inspiration programme and Get Set

March 28th, 2012: Sport Your Trainers! by Jennifer McDougall; FMacAskill; Comments: none

Did you Sport your Trainers and get involved in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games on 12th March? If you didn’t take part though it isn’t too late you still can by registering in the Sport Your Trainers 2012 Glow Group and letting us know how you will continue to take part.

We challenged you as a school to try and reach a partner country by Commonwealth Day on the 12th March of this year and show your support for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games by getting involved in this year’s Sport your Trainers campaign. You were free to choose what country you wished to partner from the Official List of Partners and then you needed to find out how far away they were from your school!

We now want to know what you did or are hoping to do as we will be keeping the challenge going!

You can take part by walking, jogging, rowing, cycling, and spinning or even skipping, the choice is yours and all activities count, so get creative!

Last year 820,000 people across Scotland pledged their support, and we want 2012 to be even bigger! By taking part in this fun challenge we’ll all be doing our bit to support the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Official Glasgow 2014 shoelaces are up for grabs for all schools that take part so you just need to sign up below to let us know that you are taking part!!

So what are you waiting for, get active!

Did you miss our Sport Your Trainers 2012 event in Glow TV – well Watch Again and check out the pictures on our Your Pictures and Resource page too!

March 9th, 2012: Call for workshop presenters!; FMacAskill; Comments: none

Highlands Council, in partnership with Education Scotland, are hosting a Games Legacy conference in Inverness on the 29th May. It will be a fantastic opportunity for schools across Scotland to get together to hear and share good practice in the area of Games Legacy.

We are at the point of putting together our programme for the day and would like to extend an invitation out to schools or cluster groups who feel they would like to present their work. We are particularly interested in those establishments who have managed to use the Games Legacy as a rich context for learning right across the curriculum and who feel ready and able to share this to help develop capacity amongst practitioners.

If you feel this is you, or sounds like a school or cluster you currently work with, then please get in touch with me to discuss the opportunity further. We look forward to working with you!

[email protected]

February 10th, 2012: Dear Forest Pitch football strip competition entrants,; FMacAskill; Comments: none

I am pleased to announce that a decision has been made for the designs of our football strips! From nearly 2000 entries from over 70 schools across the length and breadth of Scotland, a shortlist of 30 entries was made and on Tuesday 7th February the winners were announced.

The winners are Kerr Carlyle (Dalmilling Primary School in Ayr), Anah Dodds (Letham Primary School), Mia Gordon (Edinburgh Academy) and Amelia Purkis (Lilliesleaf Primary School). A special commendation was also given to Ben Logan (Maxwellton Primary School, East Kilbride) who’s design we plan to make into the goalkeepers shirts.

The winners were chosen by a panel including Craig Coulthard (Forest Pitch artist), Robert Craig OBE (Scottish Football Museum), Leonie Bell (Creative Scotland), Jon Duckworth (LOCOG) Stuart Cosgrove (Journalist & Broadcaster) and Emily Quinn (Designer).

The winning designs were announced by Shona Robison MSP (Minister for Commonwealth Games & Sport) at Hampden Stadium, where the Minister also opened an exhibition of the shortlisted designs. All the shortlisted children were presented with a certificate, and the winners received Scotland shirts signed by national team manager Craig Levein. The exhibition will be open until 15th July and entry is free.

There is a short video about the exhibition on the BBC website which can be seen by following this link.

I was delighted and inspired by the variety and imagination shown by pupils (and teachers!) and the response exceeded expectations. I would like to thank them all for their efforts and creativity.

We will keep you updated with progress on the production of the strips, in the meantime you can see the winning designs and the entire shortlist on our website.�
with thanks

Craig Coulthard

and the Forest Pitch Team

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