This years special ‘Talking Tennis’ event, which links learning across the areas of sport and language, was planned to coincide with World Sport Day. Eight teams took part, representing four schools; Longfleet Combined School, Talbot Combined School, Hillbourne School and Nursery and Springdale First School. The 96 excited pupils, selected from Years 3 and 4, arrived at Parkstone Grammar School having already been prepared for the language part of the competition. Teachers from the Languages Department from the school had visited the children in their own schools to teach them the vocabulary that would be needed during the event. The teams represented the country whose language they had learned during this special session. On this occasion, the children learned Japanese, Italian, Mandarin and Spanish. The vocabulary taught included—
Numbers 1-10, Hello, Please, Thank you, Racket, Ball, Net, Bounce, Well done, Hit, Roll, Aim, Hoop, Catch and Throw.
The tennis activities which contributed to the performance part of the competition were organised and led by the Year 12 sports leaders, whilst the language challenges were overseen by the language prefects. In all, some 40 senior students from PGS contributed to the success of the event.
At the beginning of the event, the children were joined by James Deem, Tennis Development Manager for Somerset and Dorset and Paul Williams, Education Manager for the Tennis Foundation. They joined in with the children, encouraging them to develop their tennis skills throughout the competition.
The morning began with a march on of the competing teams behind the ‘World Sports Day Flag, the Union Jack and their own flags made especially for the occasion. The teachers were encouraged to avoid replicating existing flags, and to explore the various cultures that they were representing, and to use this information to create their own ’flying information sheet’ for the day. Using the huge inflatable globes provided, the children were challenged to identify the position of their adoptive country in the world. Each team managed this and loved using the globe.
In recognition of ‘our moment to shine’ during this most exciting of sporting times, this was followed by the children learning, and warming up to, the ‘Mascot Dance’. Led by Wenlock and Mandeville, the children performed moves which reflected the Olympic Values of friendship, respect and excellence, and the sports that we will see demonstrated at the highest level during the next few weeks. This was an exciting moment for some, as this was the first time that they had met the mascots. At this point, the teachers were provided with the links to the mascot story videos to share with the children on their return to school.
At this moment, the competition began, and the children scattered in their teams to the various tennis activities set up for them. Each team faced eight different skills challenges, attempting to score as many points as possible on their journey. Additional points were awarded for their use of language at each of the stations. These activities were created using the Aegon tennis equipment bag available in all local schools thanks to the training provided for teachers by the Tennis Foundation.
The morning sped past with the children firstly learning their challenges and then being timed during a three minute scoring window. When the whistle was blown to start this timing period, the noise level rose significantly each time, with the children encouraging one another to achieve their best and remembering to use their new vocabulary. The teachers joined in, supporting their teams to perform at their best in both aspects of the competition.
On the final whistle, the teams re-grouped behind their flags and waited for the final scores to be announced. The results were remarkably close considering how much effort had been expended in trying to separate the teams! The winning school; Springdale First School, achieved 3696 points. The school in second place; Hillbourne School and Nursery were only 21 points behind!
Everyone taking part should be congratulated on their performances and we look forward to running the event in a similar fashion next year.