Olympic Legacy For Our Kids

[View From The Top]

Now it's all done and dusted how inspired are your kids to try a new sport or just to take part in any sport?

 

My nipper has declared his attention to not only bat at number 3 or 4 for England but also to be an Olympian at Handball!

 

He's watched it mesmerised & he starts training with a local handball club in September.

 

Daughters have been less inspired but they do gymnastics, dance etc anyway & are that much younger.

[This Charming Man]

Now it's all done and dusted how inspired are your kids to try a new sport or just to take part in any sport?

 

My nipper has declared his attention to not only bat at number 3 or 4 for England but also to be an Olympian at Handball!

 

He's watched it mesmerised & he starts training with a local handball club in September.

 

Daughters have been less inspired but they do gymnastics, dance etc anyway & are that much younger.

 

Good timing on his part. There's a vacant post at No. 3 at the moment...

[Lets B Avenue]

Good timing on his part. There's a vacant post at No. 3 at the moment...

 

Whats happened to Jonathan Trott then?

[This Charming Man]

Whats happened to Jonathan Trott then?

 

Ooops... 4.

[Hatch]

It's not just the kids that have to get into it, the parents have got to commit the time to taking their kids to these places and enrolling them into clubs, ref VFTT above, and not just buy an X-Box and a copy of Olympics 2012

[View From The Top]

It's not just the kids that have to get into it, the parents have got to commit the time to taking their kids to these places and enrolling them into clubs, ref VFTT above, and not just buy an X-Box and a copy of Olympics 2012

 

It's a massive commitment by parents.

 

My nipper already has football training on Thursday evening & Saturday morning, with matches Sunday PM & cricket on Friday evening & Sunday AM. Added to that is swimming on a Friday teatime.

 

Daughters have gym on Thursday at different times, eldest goes cheerleading on Monday at 6pm & youngest has dance on a Saturday.

 

My wife & I don't mind doing the running around as it means our kids are fit & healthy, are making new friends & growing in confidence which translates into success in the classroom.

 

Added onto that is 3-5 hours a week where we are over the nets or playing football so he can improve.

 

Certainly helping me keep fit!

[alpine_saint]

Now it's all done and dusted how inspired are your kids to try a new sport or just to take part in any sport?

 

My nipper has declared his attention to not only bat at number 3 or 4 for England but also to be an Olympian at Handball!

 

He's watched it mesmerised & he starts training with a local handball club in September.

 

Daughters have been less inspired but they do gymnastics, dance etc anyway & are that much younger.

 

My eldest two train three times a week and play once a week - football.

 

But I would be delighted if they turn round to me and say they want to stop in favour of something they've seen at the Olympics.

 

One had been murmuring about boxing and the other once mentioned fencing, but not said anything since, so I've planted a little seed about rowing, because hes going to be 6ft + and has quite a stocky physique.

[View From The Top]

It also means clubs opening their doors to kids & keeping the costs as low as possible.

[GenevaSaint]

My kids are going to start rowing, went down to BTC near St Marys on the weekend for a taster session. Very welcoming and they enjoyed it.

[um pahars]

My kids are going to start rowing, went down to BTC near St Marys on the weekend for a taster session. Very welcoming and they enjoyed it.

 

We are actually well served by local rowing clubs down here. Off the top of my head can think of BTC, Coalporters, Southampton ARC and Vospers/Itchen (plus the Unis).

 

All of them are very welcoming and you don't have to sign up for doing it competitively and they're more than happy for you to use it as a means of keeping fit/recreational. Did a bit at Coalporters and Vospers back in the days!

[Sheaf Saint]

My GF and me took her 9-year-old nephew camping at the weekend. He's already really sporty (plays for the Everton u10s) but he says he really wants to get into biking as a result of watching Wiggins, Hoy and Kenny.

[trousers]

Now it's all done and dusted how inspired are your kids to try a new sport or just to take part in any sport?

 

My nipper has declared his attention to not only bat at number 3 or 4 for England but also to be an Olympian at Handball!

 

He's watched it mesmerised & he starts training with a local handball club in September.

 

 

That's spooky (ish)..... We went to the bronze medal handball match yesterday and my 12 year old son has also decided he wants to take up handball.....but, we looked for a local club and the nearest we could find is either Southampton (affliated with the University I think?) or Twickenham.... we're more or less equidistant between the two so would have a c.70 mile round trip if he was to join one of those clubs.

 

I'd appreciate any info on the club your son has joined.

 

Cheers

[View From The Top]

That's spooky (ish)..... We went to the bronze medal handball match yesterday and my 12 year old son has also decided he wants to take up handball.....but, we looked for a local club and the nearest we could find is either Southampton (affliated with the University I think?) or Twickenham.... we're more or less equidistant between the two so would have a c.70 mile round trip if he was to join one of those clubs.

 

I'd appreciate any info on the club your son has joined.

 

Cheers

 

I live in mid-Staffordshire & there is an established club in Cannock, which is only a 20min drive from me.

[LGTL]

Handball is a great game, absolutely knackering to play though. They'll love it.

[trousers]

I live in mid-Staffordshire & there is an established club in Cannock, which is only a 20min drive from me.

 

Ah....that's a tad out of my range :-)

 

If you hear anything about clubs down this way in any chats you have with the handball fraternity then that would be great. Cheers

[Hatch]

Ah....that's a tad out of my range :-)

 

If you hear anything about clubs down this way in any chats you have with the handball fraternity then that would be great. Cheers

 

You could start a Club!

[dubai_phil]

Interesting that the legacy issue is being taken seriously over here as well.

 

Didn't wait just made a directive to start straight away while the "interest & buzz' generated is fresh

 

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed [h=6]Chaired a cabinet meeting where we approved the “School Olympics", which will cover all government schools. UAE deserves better performance in the Olympics. The road to World Championships starts from primary schools. We trust the capabilities of our youth and this project is the first step on a long path for UAE to achieve World Championship titles. Witnessed the signing of the School Olympics memorandum between govt. stakeholders. Achieving our goal requires us to start work immediately[/h]

[trousers]

You could start a Club!

 

Aye. It had crossed my mind to look into it. Once I've ruled out the 'lazy parent' route you never know...

[Lord Duckhunter]

Parents have busy lives and limitted time and money, the step change needs to be at schools.

 

My nipper was lucky enough to get into Grammar School and the sports facilities are fantastic. Now I realise that not every school has not got that, but the thing that impressed me was the commitment to sport. I dont know how they do it (maybe they pay more) but nearly all the teachers have bought into the ethos that sport and particulary competitive sport is good for adolescent kids. It runs through everything they do at school. The headmaster claims that by the end of the first year, they will have found at least one sport for every single child to enjoy and compete in, even the most unfit nerdish kids in the year. The range of clubs in and out of school was breath taking from the basics football, Rugby, Cricket to rowing, kayaking, windsurfing, table tennis, Weight training,Volleyball the list goes on and on.

 

Having 4 children I have found that their sports at school has depended upon one or two teachers and their dedication. Two of the kids were unfortunate to go to a school where there was no such teacher. One of the others had a teacher that I can only describe as inspirational and where he got the time to do the things he did I'll never know. It should not be down to one or two individuals or the whim of the Headmaster, it should be so ingrained in the school that any change in teachers should not lead to a change in how sport is governed in school. Not every school can have the facilities of a Grammar school, but surely the commitment to sport can be installed in every school.

[View From The Top]

Parents have busy lives and limitted time and money, the step change needs to be at schools.

 

My nipper was lucky enough to get into Grammar School and the sports facilities are fantastic. Now I realise that not every school has not got that, but the thing that impressed me was the commitment to sport. I dont know how they do it (maybe they pay more) but nearly all the teachers have bought into the ethos that sport and particulary competitive sport is good for adolescent kids. It runs through everything they do at school. The headmaster claims that by the end of the first year, they will have found at least one sport for every single child to enjoy and compete in, even the most unfit nerdish kids in the year. The range of clubs in and out of school was breath taking from the basics football, Rugby, Cricket to rowing, kayaking, windsurfing, table tennis, Weight training,Volleyball the list goes on and on.

 

Having 4 children I have found that their sports at school has depended upon one or two teachers and their dedication. Two of the kids were unfortunate to go to a school where there was no such teacher. One of the others had a teacher that I can only describe as inspirational and where he got the time to do the things he did I'll never know. It should not be down to one or two individuals or the whim of the Headmaster, it should be so ingrained in the school that any change in teachers should not lead to a change in how sport is governed in school. Not every school can have the facilities of a Grammar school, but surely the commitment to sport can be installed in every school.

 

It depends on whether any of the teachers are interested in sports. In my experience city based schools are far more sporty than rural schools & schools with a younger faculty more sporty than those with an older demographic.

 

My kids do loads but that's solely down to the sporty staff.

 

My wife's academy have scrapped the lot as they believe it distracts from the academic & thanks to Gove are free to do just that.

[teamsaint]

people need to be valued for, and properly rewarded for doing the ordinary jobs that keep society working.

 

Employers need to value the health of their staff.

[um pahars]

It depends on whether any of the teachers are interested in sports. In my experience city based schools are far more sporty than rural schools & schools with a younger faculty more sporty than those with an older demographic.

 

My kids do loads but that's solely down to the sporty staff.

 

My wife's academy have scrapped the lot as they believe it distracts from the academic & thanks to Gove are free to do just that.

 

I know schools who were doing loads with the Schools Sports Partnerships, particularly linking with sports clubs and going in to Primaries where many didn't have dedicated PE staff (and also a shortage of male staff).

 

Problem is Gove scrapped it as soon as he got through the doors of the DFE (as well as scrapping the school sports survey which allowed for a detailed analysis of what was going on on schools).

 

Cameron (and Hunt) got it seriously wrong with their anti state school tirade and from my experience (somewhat anecdotal of course), teachers are well up for supporting and pushing competitive sport as well as other activities to get kids interested, healthy and active. Sadly, contrary to what Cameron says, money is an issue.

[Lord Duckhunter]

It depends on whether any of the teachers are interested in sports. In my experience city based schools are far more sporty than rural schools & schools with a younger faculty more sporty than those with an older demographic.

 

My kids do loads but that's solely down to the sporty staff.

 

My wife's academy have scrapped the lot as they believe it distracts from the academic & thanks to Gove are free to do just that.

 

That's the problem in a nutshell.

 

My nipper went to Grammar because he had a middle school teacher that loved sport. He filled my Nipper's head with tales of the fantastic sports facillites. He told me to drive up to the Grammar with my nipper on a Sat morning and watch the sports going on. We did this, and so my boy had one goal that year, to pass the entrance exam. He was always quite bright, but the thought of doing all those sports drove him on to knuckle down and apply himself and pass the entrance exam. For that, we have his middle school teacher to thank.Had that teacher not been at my nippers middle school, he would not be at Grammar and that was down to his love of sport.

 

My political leanings are to the right, and I think Gove has done some good things (although he has a problem with his image), but in this case he is wrong. I would like to see school finish at 2 each day and the last hour/hour and a half be used for sport/phyiscal activety every day. But it needs investment and the buy in from Govt, Lea's, headmasters, teachers and parents. It's going to take a couple of generations, but maybe then we can change the whole culture of sport in our youngsters.

 

I also think the obsession with football and the Premier league is unhealthy. There are loads of sports that can help devolop our children, they are not all going to be Wayne Rooney's and hopefully the legacy of the olmpics may help parents realise this.

[View From The Top]

That's the problem in a nutshell.

 

My nipper went to Grammar because he had a middle school teacher that loved sport. He filled my Nipper's head with tales of the fantastic sports facillites. He told me to drive up to the Grammar with my nipper on a Sat morning and watch the sports going on. We did this, and so my boy had one goal that year, to pass the entrance exam. He was always quite bright, but the thought of doing all those sports drove him on to knuckle down and apply himself and pass the entrance exam. For that, we have his middle school teacher to thank.Had that teacher not been at my nippers middle school, he would not be at Grammar and that was down to his love of sport.

 

My political leanings are to the right, and I think Gove has done some good things (although he has a problem with his image), but in this case he is wrong. I would like to see school finish at 2 each day and the last hour/hour and a half be used for sport/phyiscal activety every day. But it needs investment and the buy in from Govt, Lea's, headmasters, teachers and parents. It's going to take a couple of generations, but maybe then we can change the whole culture of sport in our youngsters.

 

I also think the obsession with football and the Premier league is unhealthy. There are loads of sports that can help devolop our children, they are not all going to be Wayne Rooney's and hopefully the legacy of the olmpics may help parents realise this.

 

Scraping the SSPs stop sport dead in it's tracks. Participation is down 75% in some areas, mainly rural/semi rural apparently.

 

My nippers school, typical primary, has only one male teacher & he's gay & non sporting. The boys wanted to play cricket, football, rugby etc so using SSP bought in that coaching. That money was stopped & so has the coaching.

 

You want success then it has to be paid for. If you expect teachers to do it then pay for their coaching badges & give them the time to do those badges. Where they don't want to give them the funds to bring in coaches.

 

Gove doesn't rate sport as a virtue & by effectively scrapping the 2hrs participation he's allowing schools to do as they wish. He thinks it the place of clubs to do sport.

 

I've met him twice & both times come away wondering what the hell he's doing running the Dept of Ed'. He's living in a total LaLa land of some utopian 1950s.

[Sour Mash]

That's the problem in a nutshell.

 

My nipper went to Grammar because he had a middle school teacher that loved sport. He filled my Nipper's head with tales of the fantastic sports facillites. He told me to drive up to the Grammar with my nipper on a Sat morning and watch the sports going on. We did this, and so my boy had one goal that year, to pass the entrance exam. He was always quite bright, but the thought of doing all those sports drove him on to knuckle down and apply himself and pass the entrance exam. For that, we have his middle school teacher to thank.Had that teacher not been at my nippers middle school, he would not be at Grammar and that was down to his love of sport.

 

My political leanings are to the right, and I think Gove has done some good things (although he has a problem with his image), but in this case he is wrong. I would like to see school finish at 2 each day and the last hour/hour and a half be used for sport/phyiscal activety every day. But it needs investment and the buy in from Govt, Lea's, headmasters, teachers and parents. It's going to take a couple of generations, but maybe then we can change the whole culture of sport in our youngsters.

 

I also think the obsession with football and the Premier league is unhealthy. There are loads of sports that can help devolop our children, they are not all going to be Wayne Rooney's and hopefully the legacy of the olmpics may help parents realise this.

Why? We've managed to be one of the best sporting nation's on the planet without hours taken out of the curriculum for kids to do sport. And why is the "obsession" with football unhealthy? There is a reason that hundreds of thousands will pay £50 plus a week to watch football over the next few months in this country, but won't be doing the same for cycling or rowing.

[LGTL]

SSPs worked brilliantly. As mentioned, it provided primary schools with much needed sporting expertise that is so woefully lacking. I did TP last year at Noadswood Secondary, and we had links to the local rugby club, football club, had a specialist ex England basketball player come in to take an after school club, as well as holding primary school dance/gym gala's. We also happened to ignore Gove and did the school sports survey anyway.

 

Part of the problem is the use of PE and sport as an interchangable word when they are, IMO, totally different concepts.

[sandwichsaint]

Loving the legacy! If it's there get behind it, if it isn't make it happen. My wife and I were pretty middle ranking hockey players, took the kids along to a known big name hockey club 15 years ago - provision for little ones was poor - rolled our sleeves up, every sunday morning for 5 years, unpaid, never missed a week. Asked to move to county set-up. Five years unbeaten and national champions at u15 and u17. That was the winter! Joined a cricket club with one team and seven players, five years later two teams at every age group and county finalists three times, winners once. legAcy is a first team with seven players that came through the colts section! Six promotions in eight seasons, gone from non- league to Kent DIv 4 in eight seasons, this is a massively strong local leg set-up, behind only yorks and lancs. Don't wait for someone else to do it, if you want the best for your kurds go out and do it yourself, get together with other like minded parents. Sports infrastructure in the uk is v weak. DIY - you wait for someone else you wait for ever!

[bridge too far]

SSPs worked brilliantly. As mentioned, it provided primary schools with much needed sporting expertise that is so woefully lacking. I did TP last year at Noadswood Secondary, and we had links to the local rugby club, football club, had a specialist ex England basketball player come in to take an after school club, as well as holding primary school dance/gym gala's. We also happened to ignore Gove and did the school sports survey anyway.

 

Part of the problem is the use of PE and sport as an interchangable word when they are, IMO, totally different concepts.

 

This is the nub of it. PE should be about learning and understanding about the body and things like hygiene, sensible eating, drugs alcohol and smoking etc. etc. Sport is, well, sport.

 

I hadn't been aware of SSPs , now that I am, I think it's a shame it was stopped. I do know that my SiL, a primary school teacher, gives up two late afternoons (after school) a week to coach the school's football and now cricket teams and has instigated inter-school matches. Obviously, he doesn't get paid for this. He also spends most Saturday mornings at the driving range with his 3 year old son who, already, has great style and technique!

 

My only other thought, based on experience, is that some children just don't enjoy sport for whatever reason. I loved it at school (county level netball, and school lacrosse team). Had there been options such as dance at my school, I'm sure a lot more would have engaged in some sort of physical activitiy.