Throughout the Summer Term, our A-level Physical Education has been delivered through Microsoft Teams and has been hugely successful. We have all worked together, students and teachers, to engage in interactive lessons, with lots of pupil ownership and leadership. Whilst we are really looking forward to being back together in the normal sense, we have all gained valuable new skills and adapted amazingly well to a very different mode of teaching
PE & Games:
We sent out a detailed information sheet at the beginning of lockdown to all of our students, as well as after Easter and, again, after half term which outlined various online classes (with links) in a whole host of Physical Activities that the girls could choose from. High-intensity interval training, yoga, dance etc. and these were all age appropriate.
We also post something every PE and games lesson with new activities to try, constantly reinforcing the message that physical activity is absolutely crucial for mental & physical wellbeing at this time, more so than ever before. We made the conscious decision not to expect girls necessarily to do their physical activity during their normal PE/Games, but to choose the best time for them (& their family) to exercise. This gives the girls a chance to get away from the screen and make personal choices based on their own interests and what was available to them. The students are expected to complete a diary of what they choose to do.
We have been so lucky that so many brilliant online providers have put up amazing content for free, so the girls have had lots to choose from.
We also encouraged the girls to consider using physical activity to raise money for charity and our Senior Sports girls took this on, raising money for our chosen PE Department charity, SOS Africa, to support Raynick (who they met on their Sports Tour in 2018) in another year of education. Other students also chose to raise money in this way: The A-Level PE students started the 5K run for heroes challenge and this cascaded right through the school. Rosie in Year 7 chose to ‘Run to Granny’, raising £2530 for the Jenner Institute’s Covid-19 vaccine research and development.
All in all, we have been delighted by the way in which all of our students have continued with their remote sports learning and, whilst it’s not the same as our usual offering, it has been a chance for self-discovery and pushing ourselves to our own physical limits.
