New Norfolk Schools Leadership Pathway

Posted
15th February 2024
New Norfolk Schools Leadership Pathway

Context

Background Information

At the beginning of 2023/2024 academic year all 8 Norfolk County SGOs primary focus was to work more collaboratively as a group. We split off into smaller working groups with each group taking on one of the five School Games Outcomes. It was identified by the SGOs and Active Partnership that supporting personal development of targeted young people through youth engagement and leadership was a key priority for the County.

Selecting key dates within the school calendar we created and planned an array of varied and diverse opportunities for different key stages. The Norfolk school’s leadership journey was created with the outcome of improved personal development for young people which prepares them for life.

· Mini Leaders- Learning to Lead- KS1

· Play Leaders- Leading Participation- Lower KS2

· Active Leaders- Leading Change- Upper KS2

· Event Leadership

· Leadership Academy- Year 7-8

· Girls Active- Year 9-10

· Wellbeing Mentors- Year 9-10

· Careers Fair- Year 10-11

What was the aim of work?

1. Empower young people- To give pupils a greater sense of confidence within their sports leadership.

2. To upskill a school workforce that could support PE Leads/ PE departments to increase the number of school sport and physical activity opportunities within their school’s extra-curricular offer.

3. Develop a workforce that could lead and embed intra and inter school competition within their school community and beyond.

4. Provide opportunities for a school workforce to develop and apply life skills in several different school and community settings and situations.

5. Young people have a love for PE, school sport and physical activity, they will engage in opportunities, clubs, teams. Leading to a more active and healthier lifestyle.

Which outcome(s) did it focus on?

  • 1. To advocate and position the delivery of the CMO daily active minutes for all young people, as a universal offer to maintain and grow school engagement
  • 3. To have a clear focus on secondary school engagement and transition points
  • 4. To support the personal development of targeted young people through youth engagement and leadership
  • 5. To advocate and engage key stakeholders on the value of School Games to support local provision and improve the experience for young people and their families

Which expectation(s) did it meet?

  • Using the development plan to show how community connections will be made for young people to continue their participation.
  • Using the events calendar to upload a termly offer of events and activities with a clear intent, updated once each term.
  • Using local insight and youth engagement to identify young people and schools that would most benefit from a targeted School Games offer.
  • Developing a case study to show where you have made the most impact against local priorities, and through effective storytelling share your learning locally and nationally.
  • Collaborating with key partners to inform the local and county offer to tackle inequalities and ensuring inclusive and safe practice.
  • Developing strategies to improve knowledge and understanding of the School Games for key stakeholders.
  • Prioritising resources to implement meaningful youth engagement so young people have a voice and choice of opportunity.
  • Work with schools to maintain and grow their active engagement in School Games.
  • Identify schools that are not engaged and developing strategies to improve this.
  • Establish a clear method of communication with all schools within the SGO area.
  • Planning for and increasing delivery of 60 active minutes for every child.
  • Provide an offer of professional development and communication for all schools to increase their understanding and increase their provision of 60 active minutes.
  • Co-ordinate and signpost schools and young people to a programme of relevant training of leadership, coaching, volunteering and officiating experiences.
  • Co-design and deliver a broad and balanced School Games offer that is informed by insight and youth engagement and embeds positive experiences. It is expected that an SGO will facilitate a minimum of 12 targeted inter competitions/events/festivals with clear intent.

Community links

  • Active Partnerships
  • Community sports clubs
  • Leisure providers
  • Local authority
  • SEND leads / SENCO

Intent

Overview

Outcome- Improved personal development for young people which prepares them for life. Launched at the Norfolk PE Conference in October 2023 to all county schools. Insight gained by local consultations with PE leads and SGOs/ Active Partnership.

The KS1 Mini Leaders is a fully resourced leadership and character education programme where pupils consider the needs of their local school/ community and build habits of helping others.

Lower KS2 play leaders are a diverse group of young people who work together to have a positive impact on physical activity and school sport. They promote the School Games programme, encourage physical activity, advocate the School Games Values, and raise the profile of PE and school sport in school. The Young people involved in play Leaders will learn and develop a range of leadership, teamwork, communication, and organisational skills.

Upper KS2 Active Leaders lead the planning and delivery of sporting experiences, thus playing a fundamental role in helping develop the School Games in their school. School sport opportunities should be for all pupils in the school and therefore the Active Leaders should be fully inclusive – so everyone can take part in an activity they enjoy!

Active Leaders are responsible for Working with teachers and other pupils to organise intra-school competitions and school sport opportunities, Working with teachers to increase the 60 Active Minute offer in school, Promoting the values of sport, role model to peers, Youth Voice- Organising a survey to find out what young people think of sport in their school, Reporting back to fellow students at the end of the year on what improvements have been or are going to be made.

The School Games Event leadership award aims to provide an additional leadership pathway for pupils in primary school at our School Games events and experiences. Pupils collect an official School Games Leadership Lanyard at events and complete 1 of the 6 leadership roles- Reporter, Motivator, Analyst, Team Manager, Team Coach, Judge.

Year 7-8 each SSP in the county delivers a Leadership Academy Day which will aim to support the development of young leaders. Leaders will undertake several workshops through the day to develop their skill sets and to challenge them to be better young leaders.

Year 9-10 Girls Active explored several roles within the grassroots game. Pupils will follow the Whistlers pathway to support refereeing, leadership, coaching and marketing.

Year 10-11 Careers Fair to inspire and inform; supporting young people to be better prepared for future careers. Delivered in partnership with Active Norfolk the fair contains a selection of companies hosting exhibition stands. Teachers and young people can explore presentations, information, discussion topics and career routes, helping to raise awareness of the many Sports led career opportunities available.

Target group

  • All Young People
  • Girls
  • Primary Schools
  • Secondary Schools
  • SEND
  • Specific Year Group
  • Targeted Groups of Young People

Aligns to Schools Games Intents of:

  • Develop confidence and competence within physical activity/sport skills
  • Improve knowledge and understanding of sport and physical activity
  • Build social skills and connections (i.e. sense of belonging)
  • Championing physical literacy
  • Improve health and wellbeing (i.e. 60 active minutes)
  • Engage new/target groups of young people (tackling inequalities)
  • Provide inclusive opportunities
  • Create positive experiences
  • Promote success and achievement
  • Supporting transition
  • Develop leadership, character, life skills
  • Championing youth engagement
  • To engage/influence wider stakeholders

Implementation

The programme of activity was designed to take place across the academic year. The leadership journey was launched in October 2023. Each Key Stage had a different approach/ type of training.

KS1 Mini Leaders/ KS2 Play Leader Courses are aimed to be delivered as a whole Class / Or targeted groups in curriculum time or OHSL.  Schools were provided with all the resources needed to run the Mini Leaders Training and received Free Online training (20thNovember) provided by Norfolk PE Support Service (NPESS). Support is available to for all Norfolk schools to access external delivery.

KS2 Active Leaders was run in January 2024 at the UEA Sportspark we delivered 2 whole day training sessions. 24 schools attended bringing along 10 pupils from each school. Engaging just over 250 pupils. Leaders undertook 4 different workshops- playground games (SGO), Health and Wellbeing (Norfolk PE), Running intra school competitions (SGO), Practical Leadership Skills (Norfolk PE). Active leaders were provided with 70+ playground games and activities along with virtual event resources to run termly back at school.

Term 3-Skipping (Bronze, Silver & Gold Challenges)

Term 4-Fitness Challenge Ultimate Warrior

Term 5-Inter Form/ House in sport of school’s choice. (Post SATS)

Term 6-Athletics (Olympics link)

Leadership Academy days held in the Spring Term and are locally designed but with the core principle to engage and support 100+ year 7-8 leaders. These leaders undertook 5 workshops.

1. Leadership Qualities understanding leadership skills (National Tennis Association)

2. Practical Based Session - Focusing on how to plan and lead sessions (Norfolk Cricket Board)

3. Practical Based Session- How to adapt sessions for those with additional needs (Able 2 Be)

4. Practical Based Session- Understanding your participants (K.Fearn)

5. Next Steps/Action Planning for future (Active Partnership)

The leaders are encouraged, to take on additional responsibility back in school and run a transition day for their local cluster primary schools year 6 pupils. (All resources will be provided). They were also supported by Active Norfolk to find opportunities outside of school to get involved in community sport.

Girls Active was a programme run in December 2023. We invited 14 schools along and 120 girls attended. Each school brought along 8 pupils 4 took part in the BGFSP Whistlers Training run by two Norfolk Women’s Referees and 4 took part in the Norfolk FA Leadership Programme run by the Norfolk FA. The pupils were given resources to support them in their activator roles and encouraged to support the county finals in March 2024.

Norfolk’s Careers Fair held in Spring Term for 250 year 10-11 pupils. Working with external deliverers including Active Norfolk, Norfolk PE, Norfolk County Council, Local Colleges and Inspire+. The fair contained a selection of companies hosting exhibition stands. Teachers and young people can explore presentations, information, discussion topics and career routes, helping to raise awareness of the many Sports led career opportunities available.

Impact

This year we have worked extremely hard to get the leadership pathway up and running. Across all the strands we have engaged 104 different schools and approximately 750 pupils in face-to-face training. Further data from the KS1, KS2 and Event Leadership will be more accurate at the end of the year. We will be finding out from schools how they have worked with their leaders in school and will discuss the impact this has had on the whole school PE, School Sport and physical activity offer and the impact this has had on the personal development of individual pupils. We will also follow this work up with schools providing case studies. Demonstrating the impact in schools will help to support the sustainability of this pathway in the future.

Video- 

Pupil Feedback

“Meeting people from other schools- learning how to lead”.

“I learnt about how to communicate, work as a team, organisation, safety, SMILE and inclusivity”.

“Making new friends, creative thinking being safe and respectful”.

“I cannot wait to make a difference at my school”.

Staff Feedback

“Informative, interesting, engaging and a chance to be taken out of their comfort zone. They are now able to lead activities more confidently and independently for pupils of all ages and skill levels”.

“Children have learned a wide range of skills which will help them in everyday life. It has improved their social skills, confidence and provided them with the skills they need to lead”.

“It was a valuable and inclusive experience that we can recreate within our school environment”.

School Games Organiser Feedback

“We look forward to seeing the girls grow as advocates for girls’ football within their school and see how they implement their ideas to grow engagement and work towards equal access to football for girls”

“The leadership pathway has been a great opportunity for young people to develop new personal and social skills that they can use on other areas of their life”.

“The schools, SSP, SGO and county now have a skilled workforce that can be deployed at various events it has been great to see pupils grow in confidence and competence to organise and deliver activities”.

Challenges

Some of the challenges we have experienced in developing our leadership pathway are:

· Scheduling event days/ leaders’ days- ensuring they are planned at the right time of year.

· Sourcing deliverers able to help run workshops.

· Engaging the whole county.

· Ensuring the challenges are being completed back at school without ‘nagging’ PE leads.

· Monitoring and tracking of impact on pupils back in their own schools.

Sustainability

The work will become more sustainable and have a bigger impact in the future if pupils continue along the pathway. We plan to deliver the programme again next year using sponsorship funding from the UEA which reduces the cost of the programme, making it sustainable in future years.

Liaise with SGOs and Active Norfolk to plan how the programme can be developed further across Norfolk. This will also include the planning of future accredited courses that pupils can attend. The partners that have worked with us in the programme this year have been extremely useful, and we would really like to involve them in the programme next year.

Top tips

Top tips

  • Be clear on the intent of your project and share this with staff.
  • Make it very clear to schools that many schools have taken part in the programme and have not had a big increase  in their workload as a result.
  • Get dates in the diary as early as possible for school training and workshops sessions.
  • Ensure that the activities delivered meet the needs of the pupils, ensuring that the environment, staff, and activities are engaging and inspiring for the pupils that are involved.
  • Get pupil feedback at the end of each workshop. This can be useful when planning for the next academic year.
  • Try to embed the leadership training pathway into the curriculum.

Related sport/s

  • Leadership Training

Contributing regions

  • Framingham Earl SGO Area
  • City Academy Norwich SGO Area
  • Cliff Park SGO Area
  • King Edward VII SGO Area
  • North Norfolk SGO Area
  • Taverham SGO Area
  • Taverham SGO Area
  • Thorpe St Andrew SGO Area
  • Wayland SGO Area