DECEMBER 2017 EDITION ONE New Generation KENT SCHOOL GAMES Welcome to the 1 st edition of the newsletter for the 2017/18 season. We aim to produce one at the end of every term to summarise what we have achieved and to look forward to what we have planned next term. The beginning of this year saw a new team introduced at the Tonbridge & West Kent School Sport Partnership. We are pleased to present your Director of the School Sport Partnership, Alex Weston; your School Games Organiser, Hannah Jones and your Primary PE Specialists Lewis Church and Alistair Gainey. SCHOOL SPORT PARTNERSHIP NEWS COMPETITIONS EVENTS Since September 2017 we have provided a number of opportunities for our local primary and secondary schools. Our focus this year is to offer schools new and different opportunities that inspire and engage the pupils of Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells and Cranbrook schools to uptake more Physical Education, School Sport and Physical Activity. With a new team comes new ideas and we are excited by what 2018 can offer the West Kent area. Keep up to date with us on Twitter through @TWKSSP @TWKSSPSGO @TWKSSPPE COMMUNITY CLUBS & PARTNERS CHANGE 4 LIFE
Kent School Games Another new change this year has been the changes to the 2017/18 School Games Mark Criteria. This year there has been some significant changes to the School Games landscape that has had an impact on the competitions we deliver locally. For the first time ever School Games Organisers, nationally, have been given a set of targets to reach which aim to increase participation, improve the quality competitions offered and provide more opportunities for volunteers to get involved. This has resulted in a different way of reporting participant data to the Youth Sport Trust, which means we have made slight changes to the competition process. We have introduced a media policy and a new team sheet to better understand our participants for monitoring and evaluating purposes. Additionally, a great deal of care has been put into researching the rules for each competition to ensure we are up to date with rule changes from National Governing Bodies and to ensure that when our schools qualify for Kent School Games finals the same rules have been implemented at local level. The School Games Marks is an award that recognises schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and in the community. We were thrilled to be able to verify 26 applications for the 2016-17 academic year. All schools who achieved awards last year have now been presented with their plaques and/or certificates to display. All schools can view the criteria, including details of a new fourth level of the award named platinum, and apply for the award by registering on the School Games website: www.yourschoolgames.com The next School Games Mark application window will take place in the summer term and we will be running a School Games Mark support workshop to help schools with their applications next year as participating in this process allows schools to evaluate PE provision and develop an action plan for the future to improve. We are also looking to update the competition calendar to include the new events we have planned and ensure all 3 areas we oversee have an appropriate amount of opportunities. Please read on to find out more information!
The Offer The TWKSSP offer provides opportunities for all schools in the Tonbridge & West Kent area to access CPD training and other support services to help develop and improve the provision of PE and School Sports in Primary schools. This optional buy-in service is additional to the free core offer that all schools receive through the School Games programme. We have many schools engaging within our services this year and we have received some fantastic feedback so far. With Alex helping me in a PE coordinator support role it has really given me the extra backing and drive I need to keep the PE, School Sport and administrative tasks ticking over and flourishing. It has taken such a stress off my shoulders A teacher who is receiving admin time within school your lessons were brilliant and engaging. I have taken a lot from them and the way you present your lessons are brilliant. A teacher who has received CPD training ASA Aquatics Skills Course TWKSSP are a registered as independent providers for ASA and IOS Swim England Courses and awards and are able to facilitate various levels of training for our primary schools. On Monday 4 th December we held the first ASA Aquatics Skills Course for school swimming which saw teachers from across the SSP attend to become qualified to deliver school swimming to their pupils. The course was a huge success with all teachers who attended the fully booked course pass this course! We had a mass amount of positive feedback regarding this course with ALL attendees saying they would recommend this course to other schools/teachers and found it a highly valuable learning experience. We are looking to deliver this again next academic year as part of our SSP Packages. Quality CPD is fast becoming recognised as the most beneficial way of creating sustainable PE delivery in our primary schools and the most effective use of the PE and Sports Premium funding. Our team of PE specialists can work alongside class teachers to provide support across various areas of the PE curriculum for different year groups including the provision of schemes of work. This term we are delivering development training in 10 different schools thereby enhancing the long term provision of PE in those primaries. We have delivered various CPD twilights in several of our primary schools as well as hosting external courses at Hayesbrook School and other various locations. Please contact Alex Weston at the SSP to discuss CPD options and other services for your school.
Competitions so far Congratulations to the schools listed who have won their respective competitions and will be off to the Kent School Games finals!
The Tonbridge & West Kent Area has already had great success at the Open Kent competitions. Congratulations to the following teams and individuals who will be off to represent Tonbridge & West Kent, their school and themselves at National finals! Young Leaders At all of our competitions we strive to have young leaders volunteer to help officiate and run the events. So far we have had a total of 60 young leaders at our events! The Hayesbrook School in partnership with TWKSSP are proud to announce the renewal of the Sport Leaders programme, which is set to resume next term, for students in Year 8 to Year 13 to gain a qualification that is highly sought after. We hope to be able to offer this to all secondary schools in the Tonbridge & West Kent area.
Events Since September, the TWKSSP has put on a number of events that has benefited both teachers and pupils and they have been a great success. Here s a roundup of what has happened and what is to come! Run4Life On Friday 10 th November we welcomed over 200 participants to Dunorlan Park for our Run4Life Cross Country event. Participants from Year 1 to Year 8 ran different length courses and all who took part said it was a great success with many positive comments coming from the day. PE & School Sport Conference Our annual conference welcomed 23 teachers from 17 schools to engage with us and take part in an active and healthy discussion around this year s theme: Healthy mind, healthy child, happy child. We had guest speakers from the Youth Sport Trust talking about the PE premium; from West Kent Mind about recognising the signs of mental health problems in young children and highlighting the support available and finally a motivating talk from Primal Roots a social enterprise that uses the outdoors and nature as a way to combat mental health problems. We also spoke about what s new with the partnership and gave some active learning advice and ideas to all teachers. It was a great day with all attendees leaving positive feedback. SCHOOL SPORT ORGANISING CREWS This year we had an amazing 26 primary schools attend our School Sports Organising Crew (sports leaders) training which was held at The Angel Centre on Thursday 23 rd November. A SSOC is a group of pupils who work together to organise, coordinate and promote the School Games and school sport in their school! Each school was invited to select 10 students from Year 5/6 to attend the training. Workshops were linked to the Spirit of the Games values and involved discussing skills and qualities required to be a good leader as well as planning and delivering a physical activity and to think about what can be achieved in their own school to be a successful SSOC. It was great to see so many teachers and students involved in this training and we now have 38 active SSOC in schools across Tonbridge & West Kent! Cheerleading CPD On Wednesday 13 th December we welcomed 11 teachers from 11 schools to our first ever Cheerleading CPD ran by Inspire Allstars Cheerleading founder Joey Cuthbert. This event was organised as the TWKSSP is pleased to offer a cheerleading competition next year for all primary schools! Teachers learnt some valuable skills and tips from this training and some even got involved in some daring lifts and stunts! We can t wait to see the routines and dances at our competition next year!
Events in 2018 Active Archery: A festival to celebrate the success of the after school Active Archery clubs. This event will run in the summer term, June 2018. Staff Sport Competition: Charity event for teachers to experience and participate in the competitions they help organise all year through. Raising money for West Kent Mind. Change4Life Champions Conference In February 2018, date TBC. We will be hosting a Change4Life Champions training conference. 10 lucky schools will be able to bring between 10-15 children to train as C4L Champions who will develop new skills and gain new knowledge to become the healthy active lifestyle ambassadors for their school. The aim is simple, to highlight the importance of a healthy diet and exercise. CycleFest: In summer next year we are looking to host a cycling event; the idea behind this is to have an outlet from our balanceability and bikeability programmes. It will primarily be aimed at KS1 and KS2 but is more of a participation/ community type event in the local area. Cheerleading Competition On Monday 12 th March 2018 we will be hosting our first ever cheerleading competition! The competition will be judged on stunt difficulty, creativity and technique as well as performance. More details will be sent out in the New Year about this new opportunity! Football To mark the fantastic occasion of FA Girls Football week on 23 rd 29 th April 2018, we will be hosting a Girls Super league Football Tournament on Friday 27 th April at The Hayesbrook School! #ThisGirlCan Other events in the Pipeline The Partnership Games: Various sports delivered at this all day large scale event. Alternate activities also available to keep entertained. Open to KS1 and KS2 and open to all spectators, parents and staff. There will be a small cost for non-member schools ( 5 per child). Looking to organize for July 2018 as an end of year celebration! Orienteering ALLSTARS Basketball with the London Lions Keep an eye out for more information on things to come!
Community Clubs & Partners We have partnered with a number of organisations to improve our physical activity offer. We have also sustained and created new links with local community clubs to bring new and exciting events and new opportunities at our competitions such as the respect award! Change4Life Change4Life is a nationwide movement that aims to prevent people from becoming overweight by encouraging them to eat better and move more. Change4Life is embedded in the School Games network as a way for schools to engage with their least active students. We encourage all schools to implement and deliver Change4Life clubs and initiatives in school. On Thursday 23 rd November a county wide Change4Life Champions training was run at Detling National Showground. Brenchley & Matfield CEP Primary school attended this event and learned all about the values of Change4Life and became our Tonbridge & West Kent Change4Life Champions! As Champions, they are responsible for embedding Change4Life ethics and into their school and the Tonbridge & West Kent area. Brenchley & Matfield School will be organising a local Change4Life Champion s Conference to spread the message across Tonbridge & West Kent. We will send out invites to all schools and 10 schools will be able to attend this exciting event! In 2018, we are also hosting two Change4Life festivals that our Champions will be heavily involved in planning. Watch this space!