Mr Hopkins is delighted to bring you an update on this year’s sport at Spring Brook Upper..
Looking back at the first term of the year, these 15 weeks have certainly been a whirlwind! They have been fantastic though and I have seen a real enthusiasm across Spring Brook Academy for engaging and learning in sport and physical education this year.
So far we have been focusing on two sports in PE – football in the 1st half term and trampolining in the 2nd half term. Both of these sports allow our pupils to not only improve their skills and techniques but also to learn so much more to develop themselves.
Football is used to develop:
- social and communication skills through working together in teams
- respect through obeying rules and displaying fair play and sportsmanship
- leadership skills in organising equipment and coaching each other
- resilience through overcoming defeat or the injustice of an incorrect refereeing decision
Trampolining is used to develop:
- self esteem and confidence through confronting and overcoming fear
- resilience through constant practice, constructive criticism and rapid improvement
- communication and coaching skills as pupils coach and assist each other
- analytical skills through watching, feeding back and improving
All of these skills are so important for the development of our pupils here at Spring Brook, as well as also being able to go out of school and compete against others too.
During this term we have managed to encourage the Key Stage 4 pupils to experience 2 different sports that they would never normally play – Golf (thank you to Trafford Golf Centre for looking after us)..
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..and Orienteering (navigation races across our local parks – Daisy Nook and Boggart Hole Clough)..
Both Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 have also played competitive sport in three different tournaments against other special and mainstream schools and behaviour and respect has been excellent each time.
In October we began by taking 2 teams to the first round of Manchester City’s ‘One City’ football tournament. Both teams played brilliantly and currently Spring Brook Upper School are on top of the league at Christmas having not lost a game yet!!
Also in October, the New Bridge MAT came together as each school across the MAT brought two teams – one for Key Stage 3 and one for Key Stage 4 – to Hollinwood Academy to play in a basketball tournament. Both of the Spring Brook teams played fantastically, showing amazing sportsmanship in their matches and in the end our Key Stage 3 team just missed out by losing in the final. But well done everybody!
After a short break across November, December has seen a small group of our pupils compete against the rest of Oldham in the Oldham Cross Country Championships. This year we had 3 Key Stage 3 pupils and 3 Key Stage 4 pupils competing against some of the best runners in the borough. Our Key Stage 3 pupils competed in the Year 7 & 8 emerging runners race and Amaan managed to finish 4th after a great run! Shortly behind him were Harry in 9th and Lee in 11th. As for Key Stage 4, congratulations to all 3 who managed to finish the course against some very tough opposition!
Every year I am increasingly proud of our pupils at Spring Brook Upper. During PE and out of school sports events we see an increasing amount of good behaviour and respect for others and I am always proud to be able to take pupils out of our school to compete in what can be very difficult social situations for them to cope with.
Well done to all of the staff and pupils so far this year who have taken part in school sport. Here’s to a great 2019!!!
Mr Hopkins
PE Teacher