Portreath Youth Sport Trust Award
Outstanding Early Years Practice Award
Suzanne and Jess from Portreath school travelled to Telford last week to receive a national award from the Youth Sport Trust.
The school decided to use the Healthy Movers programme within the reception class after it was decided an alternative scheme to deliver PE wasn’t working. The Healthy Movers training was found to be easy to pick up as it fitted neatly into the Early Years Foundation Stage framework.
Alongside embedding the programme in reception, the school’s Healthy Mover Champion has also supported one to one delivery for SEND children across the school and on active breaks. In the pilot term, Healthy Movers was used to begin PE sessions before moving into other PE activity but from September the plan is to use Healthy Movers solely, as it is so much fun for the children.
The programme is delivered mainly by support staff within the school although all teachers and staff are aware of the benefits of the programme and are fully supportive. Year six children are involved in the delivery of the programme and they often bring a creative approach and take the play off in different directions to ‘traditional’ PE lessons which appeals to younger children who might not previously have enjoyed PE.
Staff have also embedded Healthy Movers cards and principle into year one classes to support children with active breaks, and they also offer a Healthy Movers afterschool session once a week which children from various year groups participate in, with students from older year groups guiding and supporting the younger attendees.
To widen the reach beyond the school gates, eighteen reception class parents attended a Healthy Movers session in school and, since then, have been sending in pictures to show how the activities are being used at home.
The school leadership team are fully supportive of Healthy Movers, and there are plans to support the development of the programme beyond school and into a local preschool within the wider community as it is believed this will support overall school readiness for those starting reception class.
Click below to see the press release: