Over the past year Active Schools co-ordinators in the Levenmouth and East Neuk areas of Fife have been delivering Sports Leaders UK Young Leaders Award in their cluster primary schools.
Co-ordinators came across the Award as a result of the Waid Academy Head Teachers Cluster group meeting where a mail shot had been forwarded to individual schools in the area. Co-ordinators were asked to look into the feasibility of the Award as a remit to be developed under the Active Schools umbrella.
Co-ordinators registered and bought the pack for cluster primary schools. This enabled all schools to take part as it was felt registration was a little expensive for each school.
As Active Schools Fife had been working on the Play Resource Pack it was decided to integrate this pack with the Young Leaders Award. This allowed for a support pack to be developed which assisted playground supervisors, auxiliaries and teachers with the training of children in playground leadership. Further work has been carried out in this area and a CD-Rom will be available shortly for all schools.
The Young Leaders Award was launched at an in-service training day for staff members. It was felt this was the best way to introduce, in a practical way, for members of staff who were working in the playground on a day to day basis. Feedback was positive and as a result staff felt they were involved from the beginning of the Award and were able to offer support in schools when the children were being trained. In some schools these staff members have been given this remit to develop and are now in charge of leadership training.
This has resulted in a number of schools requesting training for playground buddies. As playground leaders girls and boys are taught how to work with younger children in the playground, helping the children be active and take part in physical activity for at least 60 minutes a day.
To assist the young leaders with their training they were introduced to the Active Schools Play Resource Pack. A series of delivery cards developed specifically for children to use allowing them to learn lots of new games to play at interval or at lunchtime.
The Young Leaders Award helps children to focus on specific skills such as giving instructions, the organisation of people and equipment and the use of space. The girls and boys also kept a log of all work undertaken. The worksheets were completed either in school during sessions or as homework dependent upon the needs of the school.
In total, twelve primary schools with 291 children aged between P5-P7 participated in the Award. Interestingly, 165 girls undertook the Award as compared to 126 boys.
These numbers are only set to rise with co-ordinators in other areas in Fife interested in promoting the Award. Co-ordinators are currently in the process of working with schools to gauge interest, planning for further training or reviewing the impact of the Award with staff members.
Co-ordinators within the Levenmouth and East Neuk areas have provided assistance to other co-ordinators within Fife . Such assistance has proved extremely useful with other view points being taken on board and slight alterations / amendments being required for each school. Due to the flexibility of the Award, Play Resource Pack and the Support Pack such assistance has proved invaluable to fellow colleagues and the heightened promotion of the Award within primary schools in Fife.
Recently a further agreement has been made with the College to provide training for lecturers and students who are interested in assisting with the delivery of the Award over the next year. Such opportunities can offer an understanding in facilitation / tutoring skills for students who are required to provide evidence of a practical nature for a work placement module.
To this end, such a partnership with Sports Leaders UK and Active Schools Fife can only strengthen the focus on active play in the playground as well as introducing a pathway for children to become involved in sports leadership at an early age that will stay with them into adulthood.
Duncan Caithness and Jennifer Collins
Active Schools Co-ordinators