Team GB meet Team Greysbrooke

On your marks, get set, go! Future sports stars at a Lichfield primary school have been giving their personal bests during an Olympics themed week, which opened in leaps and bounds with a visit from two Team GB athletes.

The winning event, which took place at Greysbrooke Primary School last week, started with an inspirational day led by British heptathlete champion, Katie Stainton (pictured below), and British champion long jumper, Feron Sayers (main image).

All children took part in a Zoom call with the sporty VIPs, and every class had two PE sessions with each athlete.

Ellie Ballinger, headteacher of Greysbrooke, which is part of the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership, said pupils loved Feron’s motto: “quality and consistency creates excellence” so much, that they have referred to it every day.

She said:

“Pupils and staff thoroughly enjoyed the day and the aim of inspiring a future generation was certainly a success. Children left school talking about muscle groups, excellence in sport, determination, and resilience. “Many children asked searching questions of the athletes as to how they have achieved their success and following on from that, they have asked if our sports coordinator can find details of local athletics clubs for them to attend.”

The week has seen the budding Olympians competing in inter-house competitions in archery, boccia, orienteering, and hand ball, along with some traditional athletics events.

A cross-curricular approach enabled children to use the Olympics theme in all subject areas. This included discovering more about the Ancient Olympics in History, locating host cities on a map in Geography, designing new medals and kits in Art, Design and Technology, solving Maths problems, and even learning a little Japanese.

Mrs Ballinger added: “We’ve had a wonderful week of Olympics here at Greysbrooke – It’s been both educational and fun. Many thanks to Miss Callahan, our sports leader, who organised and coordinated the whole week – she did a phenomenal job in timetabling everything, liaising with athletes and planning and providing lesson ideas and activities for the whole school to access.

“The Tokyo Olympic Games may be less than two weeks away, but our children have a head start for the future thanks to Katie and Feron, whose ambition and success helps the torch burn brightly for each and every child.”