Pre Prep children were encouraged to participate in a virtual 'at home' Sports Day this year with a range of suggested events in which to participate. Head of Sport, Mr Gareth McComb encouraged the children to practise the events during their allocated week and then perform them when it suited them best at home. The sports staff provided written and video instructions to help set up races and events and to start the 'ready, steady, go!' Families had the option to upload their photos and videos to the allocated Padlet to share the fun with their friends and teachers.
Mr McComb explained, "The idea was to provide a similar set-up to the annual Pre Prep Sports Day in school and to encourage families and the children to be creative and have fun with the suggested instructions for each event. The children count how many lengths they do in the set times or time themselves for the “events” only if they want to and they don't need to share these with anyone unless they wanted to do so. It was great to look at each Padlet to see how many St John's families got involved with siblings taking part too."
The suggested events included a 'Zig zag event' (running in and out of 5 objects), 'Dressing up event' (race to put on 3 items of clothing), 'Two footed jumping event' (jump with two feet together as quickly as possible in one direction over the 10 metre length), 'Egg and spoon event' (anything that can be balanced on a spoon), 'Obstacle event' (mark out an obstacle course using different objects from around the house) and a 'Creative race'. One T2 child commented, "I had so much fun setting up the races with my sister and we loved making up our own creative race by finding different objects around the house!" Another child in KG said, "I loved the dressing up race and, by the end, I had so many clothes on!"
Children in Senior House were also encouraged to take part in a Sports Day at home and their races were tailored to suit their age range with a shuttle run, standing long jump, vertical jump, speed bounce and a target throw. The children were engaged the help of a family member to keep time, measure distances and record results. The 'unofficial' House results were: 1st Beaufort, 2nd Gunning, 3rd Sandys, 4th Fisher.
Every week during remote learning, the sports staff designed a tailor-made suggested sports schedule for each year groups and in Senior House this included a range of activities based on yoga, health related fitness and skills, all using equipment that could be found at home. Byron House children also had a specially designed sports programme and all were designed with the aim to give everyone an activity they can take part in to keep physically active and a wide range of tasks. A Form 3 child commented, "One of the best parts of being in lockdown was making time to get outside and have a go at one of the activities and they were different each week and really fun. Sometimes, going on a long walk or cycle ride really helped being away from the Chromebook and it was something we could all do as a family during this time."