Wimbledon fever has started and is spreading all over the country. For 70 children in Poole, the anticipation to play tennis is running on high. Wednesday 23rd June saw six schools from the Poole area come together at the Esporta centre to take part in the inaugural combined tennis and languages event.
The Poole school sports partnership have been working alongside the languages department at Parkstone Grammar school to bring an event to the children of Poole to encourage activity, tennis and the learning of languages.
“The response from the idea of this event was overwhelmingly positive. I have had a lot of encouraging feedback which is a great reaction to all the hard work and preparation that has gone in to making this event possible. The children took really well to the new challenge and enjoyed the language learning. This has been a great model for us to be able to continue year on year promoting sport and languages.” commented Dr Karen Riding, Head of Languages at Parkstone Grammar School.
Seven teams from the six Poole Schools each representing a country were given tuition from the language leaders at Parkstone grammar school, teaching basic vocabulary of their chosen country and adding some tennis inspired terms. The teams were to complete each one of the stations where they completed tennis tasks and each one giving them the opportunity to gain points for tennis and languages skills.
Callum Hammond, 8 from Talbot School commented on his newly learnt Japanese “my favourite word I have learnt is Konnichi wa, which means hello, and you have to bow.”
“This was so much fun. Learning Russian was not so hard, it’s cool.” Maddy Moorcroft, 8, from Stanley Green School.
The children were actively encouraged to work as a team to gain as many points as possible and to use the new words they had learnt. The points were collated and the winning team, Heatherlands School was awarded with the Esporta Tennis Trophy.
Heatherlands PE leader, Miss Burchell excitedly commented on the team’s success “the children are extremely proud that they have won. It was so much fun for them and they have worked really hard. This has made 14 kids day!”
James Deem from Dorset tennis joined the groups “It is events like these that are making a difference for tennis and bringing about new awareness of activity and tennis combined. The idea to integrate tennis and language is a great scheme and I think the children have really benefitted.”
Through the efforts of Deborah Wheatley, Poole SSCo, 895 children have had access to tennis through the sports programme. The Poole school sports partnership is one of the most active groups in Britain and is energetically working towards offering more sporting opportunities for all young people.
Further media information:
Emma York
emma@freshapproachpr.co.uk
07905601494
For all information and to contact the Poole School Sports Partnership:
Lind Dyer
Partnership Development Manager
01202 305182
lindadyer7@hotmail.com
Editor’s Notes:
Poole Schools Sports Partnership
School sport partnership are groups of schools working together to develop PE and sport opportunities for all young people. All schools in England are now involved in a school partnership.
The Poole school sports partnership offers sporting opportunities for 5-19 year olds and covers 45 schools in the area from primary, secondary and sports colleges.
The School Sports Partnership launched in 2000. In 2008 a target was set for 80% of children in schools to be completing two hours of sport per week. Poole exceeded the target by gaining 85% and is now working towards a five hour offer initiative.
Working together to make sport happen!