Working with IDACI Schools

Context, Intent and Target Group

Background Information

As I became familiar with the role of an SGO, I looked at the YST Knowledge bank to find the schools/pupils who are in the most deprived parts of our area.

Once the data was collected, I looked at the schools who were high across all sections of the data and compared them to the events data we hold here at Willow Tree. As a result of this, two schools shared similar data (Gifford Primary and Viking Primary). However, Gifford are able to access events on a regular basis, whilst the other relies on Sports Premium in order to access our events. Even then, Viking does not attend that many events across the year. In the past twelve months, they have attended two events.

By taking a closer look at the two schools, Viking became the school I knew I should work with in order to provide more opportunities for their children. This school is a one form entry school in a diverse area with the local green space being very small. The school shares a basketball court with the local council and much of the time, this area is unfit for purpose for the children due to the condition it is left in by those who use it the previous night/overnight.

I held a meeting with the headteacher of Viking, with the aim of finding the reasons why the school did not attend too many events across the year and what I could do in order to provide some form of competition/festival for the children of the school.

The location of events had an impact on the school as it would have meant the school had to pay for a mini-bus and the head teacher would be the one who would take the children to the event alongside their PE coach.

In order to reduce this barrier, it was thought that we could hold some events on the school site with the view that some other schools could attend to provide an inter school element. Additionally, we spoke about the transition to high school for the children in year 6. Most of the children will attend Barnhill Community High School, in one of the Hillingdon SGO areas. I have spoken with the SGO of the area and we are currently putting a plan in place in order to hold a festival for the children of Year 6 from four local primary schools (two from WTSSP SGO area, two from Hillingdon SGO area) to attend the school, see the facilities and staff before starting there in September.

Viking’s Data:

Pupil Location IMD- 2

Pupil Location IDACI- 2

School IMD- 2

School IDACI- 2

Number of Pupils- 215

% Girls- 50.7

% Boys- 49.3

% EDC- 86.9

FLOTE %- 65.6

FSM %- 40.9

PP %- 42

SEN %- 13

EHC %- 4.7

Persistent Absence %- 17

Expected KS2 results %- 70

Suspension Rate %- 1.9

What was the aim of work?

The aim of this support has been to provide the children of this school an opportunity to take part in some competitive events against children from their schools and that of others. As well as this, the transition project has been to provide the children of the school an opportunity to visit a local high school and experience the new environment for the first time.

Which outcome(s) did it focus on?

• 2. To ensure all competition has a clear intent and creates positive experiences based on the motivation, competence and confidence of the young people that need our support the most
• 3. To have a clear focus on secondary school engagement and transition points

Which expectation(s) did it meet?

• 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.
• 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.
• Work intensively with a minimum of two low engagement schools to improve their understanding, engagement and access of the School Games offer.

Intent

The purpose of this work was to be able to provide some intra and inter competitions and festivals for the children of schools in a low IDACI area.

Viking is a one form entry school who are unable to attend a lot of the events for the school for a variety of reasons. After a meeting with the head teacher, we agreed that some events closer to them or even on site would be better for them.

Through this work, we are targeting the pupils from Key Stage 2. This includes children from a range of different cultures and backgrounds, as well as some children with SEND. During the events, the children are to take part in some sports they have not seen or played before. The headteacher was keen to avoid sports such as football, with Boccia, Kurling and Sitting Volleyball being chosen for the children to take part in.

Target group

• Ethnically Diverse Communities
• White (British or English)
• White (not British or English)
• Mixed
• Asian or Asian British
• Black or Black British
• Primary Schools
• Pupil Premium
• SEND
• A cognitive disability (e.g. problems thinking or remembering)

Aligns to Schools Games Intents of:

• Promote success and achievement
• Supporting transition

Implementation

As this ran across the whole year, the children of Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 were all targetted for the additional competitions. Each time, 2 year groups would take part in an event chosen by the Head Teacher (HT), who is also the PE lead of the school.

In our first event, we held a Kurling competition for the children in Year 5 and Year 6. The format meant that all teams played each other with no team sitting off. Using Koboca, the year groups were split into 6 teams of varying numbers. The teams played a round robin style competition, with two ends in each round.

This worked well as the scores were easily collated and the team who won were not a team who were the more confident sportspeople. The children who were not as confident in sports were the children who had more success as they were able to think about where they wanted to play their shot rather than rushing.

As the children in Years 3-6 all took part in a Kurling Competition, the Head Teacher wanted to ensure the children tried something new. This led us to hosting a Boccia event for the children. The children were then introduced to Boccia. Their understanding of these games helped them to understand that games can be played by anyone.

For the Boccia competition, the children were split into 7 teams with one team given the opportunity to practise whilst the other teams played against each other. Four courts were set up around the hall with everyone playing outwards and the lines of the badminton court being used to signal the edge of the playing area. As we did not have an abundance of time, the competition was not finished for each year group so either longer than an hour is needed or multiple days would be better.

As part of one afternoon, after the SATs were completed, the children of Year 6 took part in a split session of Boccia and Sitting Volleyball. The Boccia competition was laid out as above, with teams rotating to have a game off and playing in a round robin style competition.

The children were also then given the chance to play some matches of Sitting Volleyball.

These matches were friendly style as to support the children in their understanding of the game and how to play it. The rules took some getting used to but by the end of it, most of the children were able to play the game competently. As there were 19 children in the class, the teams were split so that one team played a game between them and the others played in a match. The children who wanted to play in the smaller group preferred staying between themselves, this worked well as those children had more chance to play and take shots.

All in all, working with this school with targetted competitions worked well as the children were able to experience the competition element. As well as this, the success of those less confident children in these events was something that will encourage me to continue this work with this school and others in a similar position.

Impact

The children of Years 5 and 6 both shared their enjoyment at being able to take part in other sports, such as Kurling as they only take part in this on Sports Day. The initial plan was to work with the Year 5 and 6 children only within the school, however, due to the success, the Head Teacher asked to run the same event with the children in Year 3 and 4.

The children of Year 3 and Year 4 also really enjoyed their experience. To ensure that all children remain engaged, the children who were not playing officiated the games for the other children.

The children left the hall thanking their Head Teacher for allowing them to take part in the event and the teachers were asking about using the equipment or purchasing their own to host something similar between their classes or an inter-class competition.

As the events continued, the children who were often highlighted as children with behavioural problems, were fully engaged in the competition. The teacher highlighted that by having shorter matches, the children remain constantly active.

In our very first event, the teams were split and ready to start. One of the more confident sporting members of the class was very keen to direct his team in terms of where/how to send their kurling stone to the other end of the court. This child was very used to winning at all of the sports he had undertaken, by the end of the competition, he seemed very confused as to why and how his team had not won. By understanding the game is not just an individual sport, but a team version, he then realised that this is transferable across other sports and needs to work with those members of his team better.

In the same competition, a young girl with SEND, who is very shy, was placed on to a team. This team then went on to win the competition. As a result of this, she had celebrated and left the hall very happy asking if there was a club that she could join to play this a bit more. This moment was shared with the Head Teacher and she was very pleased to hear it as this young girl is often very shy and not actively involved in a lot.

Challenges

This school is very small, as such, it only has one hall which is used for the schools lunch time servings. The main challenge with this was ensuring that the floor was clean, the area was tidy and ready for the children to take part. This did not provide much of a challenge for me as the Head Teacher ensured that the lunch time staff had the hall cleared. However, should this provide an issue for others, my recommendation would be to lower the amount of ends played in this game.

A further challenge is that there are only two toilets in this school, which makes inviting other schools a challenge. This did not provide a challenge as the other schools were unable to attend this year. But for this, a limit on the number of children who attend would be put in place.

Bringing other schools across provided a challenge as they could not make the dates which had been provided. To improve this, the dates for the year are going to be secured at the start of the year and other schools made aware of these so they can attend.

At the start of the year, we were planning on using the high school a lot of the children are going to attend to host one of our events. This did not work out as the high school was unable to find a date that suited them. Moving forwards, it may be worth looking at multiple high schools in the area to work with them and provide the children with an opportunity to see the school they could be attending in the near future.

Sustainability

All of these events which were completed, all followed a format that was easy to follow. The teachers and Head Teacher were shown how to make use of Koboca. This system allows the fixtures to be created with ease and the league table to be automatically so the teachers do not need to make any calculations.

The only complication that may arise is the lack of equipment available to run these exact events. However, as we have it to hand, we are able to bring it with us and allow the children to take part in it.

As School Games funding is continuing, I will be able to continue this next year. Should the funding then not be in place, I will not be able to run as many events to the same extent.

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