Easington District – The impact of SAQ®

The subject of PE is held in very high regard in the school of Easington C of E Primary School. So much so that over the past year a lot of thought and change has gone into how the lesson is taught, how our sports day should be run, how we as a school can reach out to other schools and spread our good practice, and that sport should become an everyday occurrence for our children.

We undertook a thorough review, involving both children and teachers, of our PE curriculum to identify how we could improve the quality to an even higher standard. The basis for moving forward was the focus on core skills requirements in line with the QCA. The introduction of SAQ® (Speed Agility Quickness) into the daily multi-skills and every PE lesson would be major step forward. With the head’s permission my long-term plan was to integrate SAQ® into every PE lesson and morning fitness session.

Our vision, however, was to not just provide the children with a quality PE lesson, but to provide a diverse range of PE going further than the required 2 hours a week. The daily multi-skills/fitness would add another hour to the weekly dosage of PE, and for those attending after school clubs another 3 hours.

Our first change came in the way of a Tuesday to Friday morning fitness/multi-skills session of 15-20minutes first thing in the morning, before the first academic lesson of the day. This has not just improved overall fitness but has had an incredible impact on children’s behaviour preparing them better for the start of their academic day. We have also seen a great improvement in our special needs children, with their balance, coordination, agility and speed greatly improving. I was always confident of the impact of SAQ® on our children.

The achievement of winning the Mini-World Cup last year brought us additional funding, as well as a fantastic trophy. This funding was invested in gaining additional Sports Equipment, specifically SAQ®. This was, however, just the beginning. Such an acquisition of SAQ® equipment meant that we could push the Multi-Skills ethos even further. <b>Through effective communication we got buy in from Parents/Guardians, and the early morning multi-skills commenced</b>. We took this opportunity to also fully inform them, via newsletter of the change in the after school clubs and the Tuesday to Wednesday morning fitness programme, which would also now be based on a multi-skills/SAQ® outcome.

We as a school are more than aware of the demise of children’s “background play” and the importance of multi-skills for our children. Fundamental skills that need to be taught on a daily basis in order that the children will benefit over the course of the year. Such good practice could be spread to neighbouring schools by initiating a multi-skills club for the Easington Cluster (Easington C of E, Easington Colliery, and South Hetton).

We decided to put forward a bid to Awards for All to acquire funding to set up a weekly Multi-Skills club at Easington C of E Primary. The funding would enable us to purchase equipment from SAQ® International and bring in qualified coaches from the local council, provide transport to bring children from the cluster schools, and provide indoor facilities during the winter months. However, since the bid was submitted we have managed to find indoor facilities without cost (the local comprehensive has provided us with the sports hall over until the Spring half term), school staff have provided transport, and regards the coaching, the funding has allowed for one of the teaching staff (PLT) to undertake the I-Diploma. Therefore, due to such savings the money has allowed us to purchase a wider range of equipment than first thought such as: hurdles; indoor/outdoor footwork ladders; boundary poles; peripheral vision sticks & rings; explosive training parachutes; reaction balls; jelly balls; stride frequency canes; indoor skittles; sidestrike; footballs; camcorder for assessment; KS1, KS2 and Multi-Skills guides from SAQ®.

The club has now been running for the full Autumn term on Wednesday evenings 3:45pm – 4:45pm, and has been a major success with all the children enjoying the activities outdoor and indoor. We also purchased 30 water bottles to give to the children, encouraging them to drink plenty of fluids on the club nights. The club during the Spring and Summer months will be extended to lower KS1. We are already looking forward to the Spring term, whereby a lot of the new equipment can be put to use. Such an investment both in money, staff and resources has let the children see how important PE and sport is in their everyday life.

SAQ® equipment and its methodology is now a part of all PE lessons. All children are now well versed in the terms such as “Dynamic Flex®”, icky shuffle, and the layout of ladders, hurdles, boundary poles and their integration into the daily morning fitness/multi-skills and weekly PE lesson and after school clubs.

Our sports day is also a celebration of sport for the school year. The day is a day in which the children still compete, but we work it on the carousel idea, whereby each child takes part in one of the many activities involving throwing, jumping, kicking. No matter what they throw, jump or kick each child gains points depending on how they achieve. We also have 5 a-side, tennis, and boccia and skittle competitions running at the same time. We also let the children perform their dance routines from the recent dance festival, some children perform routines they have made up themselves. We always end the day in the traditional obstacle, sprinting, and middle distance race. Again the SAQ® equipment and methodology is fundamental to the Easington C of E Sport’s Day success, the ladders, poles, hurdles etc all go towards giving the children an exciting and invigorating day.

We at Easington take our sport very seriously we have always been fully committed to high quality PE, but we are now in the position to take this to a much greater level. Embracing SAQ® and multi-skills ethos and embedding this throughout the school has been groundbreaking. With new facilities to be built during 2007/08 will enable us to introduce basketball, netball and hockey into the curriculum. The new MUGA will not only mean extra training for our lunchtime supervisors, but will provide facilities that our neighbouring comprehensive children could use to further their leadership skills in the subject of PE.

Our overall commitment to sport has grown year on year with us now leading the way throughout the district. We do not wish to stand still but to continually move forward and embrace the subject with an even stronger will and determination. I look out of the staffroom window and see a whole school who are running, skipping, playing with footballs and basketballs, playing tag basically enjoying themselves, but at the same time keeping fit. We may not be able ‘ever’ to have ‘background play’ back where it should be, but with SAQ® we certainly have something that goes a long way in helping our children become healthy and fit young people.

By John Roberson

Easington C of E Primary School