SCHOOL GAMES – RAISING ACHIEVEMENT JAMES CAPPER Senior Lecturer, Staffordshire University VICKI THOMPSON School Games O

1. SCHOOL GAMES – RAISING ACHIEVEMENT JAMES CAPPER Senior Lecturer, Staffordshire University VICKI THOMPSON School Games Organiser, Denbigh High School

3. RAISING ACHIEVEMENT Workshop Aims: 1. How can we engage the wider school in the School Games and embed the School Games within school? 2. How can we use the School Games to raise achievement across the whole school? 3. To share some of the key findings of existing research in this area and invite you to support further work and contribute to a ‘live’ research project.

4. TO START… Discuss… What is the purpose of competition? How do you use competition?

5. PURPOSE OF COMPETITION • Comparison of achievements • Winning and Losing? Developing appropriate attitudes • Teaching values – team work, self belief, determination, passion, • respect, honesty, responsibility, perseverance, resilience, initiative • Character building • Celebration of achievement / personal best • Preparation for success in real world (competition part of life) • Can motivate students to ‘try hard’ and ‘do their best • Goal setting • Focus on strategies and tactics • Mastering skills • Can stimulate ‘learner buy-in’ and engagement • Can develop social moral aspects of education • Opportunities for leadership

6. ENGAGING WIDER SCHOOL • Denbigh High School, Luton • Denbigh High School is an outstanding school with approximately 1120 students between 11-16 • A highly successful school that has a decade-long record of year-on-year achievement at GCSE • 97% EAL, 75% Asian, 20% Black & 5% White

7. ENGAGING WIDER SCHOOL • Using Level 1 Intra School Games • Where were we? • Sporadic team sports • Inter-form matches • (sport only) • Sports Day • Why change? • To give greater structure • To give greater whole school impact • To develop a greater sense of • belonging • Opportunities for all students • To raise aspirations for all to achieve!

8. ENGAGING WIDER SCHOOL • What did we do? • Tutor competitions every lunchtime across different sports • Rebranded ‘inter form’ - creating excitement • Fixtures list for every tutor group for the year, reminders every week • Links to assemblies, celebrations weekly with running scores • On going scores contributing to 3 day Olympic finals • Bonus points for tutor support • Variety in sports in/outdoor

9. DENBIGH HIGH SCHOOL, LUTON Discuss… Why just sport? Are there any current structured competitions taking place across other subjects?

10. ENGAGING WIDER SCHOOL • Competition Across the Curriculum – EBACC competitions • Level 1 School Games – tutor competitions based on EBACC subjects once a week • Needed to ensure engagement from other HoD and engagement from tutor groups • In same way as sport, points awarded contributed to 3 day Olympics

11. ENGAGING WIDER SCHOOL • Competition Across the Curriculum – EBACC competitions • Tutor groups compete every Friday morning during registration – based on English, Maths, Science, Humanities or Languages • Tutor groups complete quiz and leave answer sheets in registers (different questions for each year group)

12. EMBEDDING SCHOOL GAMES Level 2 EBACC competition • First competition in English • Half of the secondary schools in the town engaged • Engagement with our English department to design the competition rounds • School Games Organiser to manage event • Weekly training in place for all EBACC teams driving engagement and excitement

13. LEVEL 2 EBACC COMPETITION • Created an excitement and buzz regarding this new type of competition for • secondary schools • Teams of 3 from Year 7, Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10 • All year groups undertook four rounds of 10 minutes long • Activities were related to sport including anagrams based on the Olympic • values, students giving an acceptance speech for ‘Sports Personality of the • Year’ and writing an article on the inequalities linked with prize money • Excellent opportunity for the best academic students to be involved in a • competition that has the same values as the regular sports competitions but • with less physical activity.

14. LEVEL 2 EBACC COMPETITION Year 7 Round 1 – Anagrams and definitionsRound 2 – Sentence constructionRound 3 – Paragraph constructionRound 4 – Story writing Year 8 Round 1 – Linguistic techniques Round 2 – Puzzle Round 3 – Writing own body copyRound 4 – Pitch writing Year 9 Round 1 – Word wheel Round 2 – Olympic Pictionary Round 3 – Who done it? Round 4 – Just a minute Year 10 Round 1 – AnagramsRound 2 – Descriptive Writing Round 3 – Information relay Round 4 – Persuasive speech

15. ENGAGING WIDER SCHOOL Discuss… What are the barriers to these competitions in your school? Who would you need to engage with?

16. EMBEDDING SCHOOL GAMES Getting others involved - Events Management Team Objective: To increase the percentage of pupils engaged with the School Games not necessarily in a sporting context and not necessarily competing

17. Selected pupils; target group (Year 9 FSM) EVENTS MANAGEMENT TEAM Contacted head of departments for maths and English with an overview and asked them to select an appropriate member of staff to become involved (CPD) Invited pupils to their first “meeting” to share with them the idea and roles. They were given the choice to be involved, 32 our of the 34 selected signed contracts the following week. Roles within the EMT were allocated and training commenced. Training takes place once a week T-Shirts that identified the pupils in the EMT were issued to the team. Captains for each role were selected and they took on extra responsibilities within their team First EMT event; Town Basketball Tournament that took place in January. The pupils said……..

18. EVENTS MANAGEMENT TEAM Tariqul Chowdury Captain of “Welcome Team” My first experience of being in the events management team has been great, I have always enjoyed speaking to visitors and it is great being involved with the big sports events as someone important. Hudhyafah Zaman Captain of “Marketing Team” The marketing team is great, I am really enjoying my role of “Captain” It was good to see some of my work displayed around school in the lead up to the basketball event. Sana Boston Captain of “Media Team” Being apart of the media was awesome, I loved interviewing the coaches and players throughout the games, I think they enjoyed the attention too. We are working hard editing our work now which is fun but quite hard work too. Zaqwan Mohammed Captain on “Statistics Team” The statistics team worked well together in their first event, some of the other schools even asked for copies of the statistics.

19. RAISING ACHIEVEMENT • Competition for all - Evaluation from children: • Raising self esteem and boosting confidence of all • Increasing motivation and dedication to subjects • Increase in unity and belonging (tutor groups) • Increase in aspirations

20. Competition in school settings What can be learned from the literature? • How is competition conceived by learners and teachers? • Perceived purposes of competition within schools? • Potential problems? • How are competitive activities best taught in schools?

21. How can competition perceived by learners and teachers? Power, Dominance, control

22. How is competition conceived by learners and teachers? • Ego-oriented? • Extrinsic motivations? • Could lead to ‘unhealthy’ outcomes

23. Strategies & Tactics How can competition perceived by learners and teachers?

24. How can competition be conceived by learners and teachers? • Alternative elements of competitive activities… • Being ‘players’ and taking part in the fullest sense • Mastering skills • Task oriented? Intrinsic motivations? Pro-social outcomes?

25. Purposes of competition within schools? • Can motivate students to ‘try hard’ and ‘do their best’ • Develop appropriate attitudes to winning and losing • Preparation for success in real world (competition is part of life) • Builds character [little evidence for this is practice] • Can stimulate ‘learner buy-in’ and engagement

26. Purposes of competition within schools? • Can develop social moral aspects of education • Teach individual responsibility (as part of team) • Develop team building skills – socialising impacts • Can develop perseverance and resilience • Opportunities for leadership, taking initiative • and decision-making

27. Potential challenges? • Gender issues. Girls and competition • Differing abilities and skill levels – often less able and less skilled learners experience competitive activities negatively • The positive impacts of some forms of competition are only available to those who can sometimes achieve success • Can create alienation and embarrassment – may exclude • May impact negatively on some learners’ self-perceptions self-esteem, self-confidence and self-efficacy

28. When using competition in schools… • Need to be critically reflective about competition • Consider how to manage a competitive environment in classrooms to cater for mixed ability groups • Be empathetic with those who are having difficulties • Promote intrinsic, self-determined forms of motivation • Role of teacher as facilitator rather than instructor

29. When using competition in schools… • Draw on TGfU theory – during competition activities use questions, prompts, feedback to enable learners to discover solutions to problems • Reflect in & on action • Stoppage time needed during competition – for • debate, dialogue and reflection. Learners gain perspective on others’ interpretations and actions

30. Action planning and discussion