North Neighbourhood Active Schools Mini Olympians!
The Mini Olympians project has been developed and delivered by the North Neighbourhood Active Schools Team and runs from February until May. The project is engaging P3 or P4 pupils per primary school. A total of 17 classes from 12 school are taking part, with representation from four clusters (Craigroyston, Trinity, Drummond and Leith). The aim of the project is to raise awareness of the Olympics and Paralympics among young children and to encourage these pupils to become more active and involved in sports, right through to the Commonwealth games in 2014 and beyond. It is hoped that by keeping Olympic awareness and excitement levels high the North Neighbourhood Team will create their own local legacy, which we hope will be of More Active Children!
Our very own Olympic torch started its journey in the Craigroyston Cluster in February and was passed on to the Trinity Cluster last week. Pirniehall passed on the North Neighbourhood Torch to Craigroyston pupils, Craigroyston to St David’s, St David’s to Forthview and Forthview then passed the torch on to Wardie. Each participating class will do a mini project around the time of their scheduled visit and pupils can follow the torch virtually and link with other mini Olympians via a Glow page.
Each participating class has been allocated an Olympic/Paralympic sport which the school has researched prior to their torch visit. Project topics have included stars of the sport, history of the sport, Olympic/Paralympic values, etc. Also each class pupil will create their own hand made torch, which they will exchange with a mini Olympian from another school.
The lay out of the sessions have looked something like this:
Arrival and welcome
Host class presentation to visiting school
Exchange of mini torches with new friends
Introduction to sport
Sports event (45 – 60 minutes)
Exchange of North Neighbourhood Torch
The first session took place on Tuesday 21 February where Pirniehall delivered the Torch to Craigroyston. The children at this session had so much energy and enthusiasm! Craigroyston welcomed Pirniehall by decorating their gym hall in handmade Olympic and Paralympic pictures, and they also staged a fun and informative presentation. The sport for this session was hockey and we were elated to have former Olympian and current Scotland international hockey player Graham Moodie. Graham was a member of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland squad that finished ninth at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and he was also part of the Great Britain training squad for the Beijing games in 2008. Graham wore his team GB Athens Olympic kit, which caused quite a stir with the children. He spoke proudly about his involvement in the Olympics and generated a lot of interest from pupils who asked some exceptional questions about his experience. After the presentation, pupils then played games and brushed up their hockey skills before Pirniehall presented the torch to Craigroyston Primary. The session had a buzz around it leaving everyone involved with a happy glow!
The Olympic Torch project will come to an exciting finish when each school class involved will participate in an Olympic-themed Festival at the end of May. The project ties in various elements of the curriculum for excellence, including Health and Wellbeing, Technologies, Social Studies and Literacy.
Ricky Keroyan
Active Schools Coordinator
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