A forward-thinking secondary school in Staffordshire has re-written the rule book on a traditional sports day by introducing competitive spaghetti tower building and inclusive athletic games such as Boccia – and students said they loved it!
Pupils at John Taylor Free School in Burton-upon-Trent were not simply confined to the athletics track when they turned out to take part in their sports day at the end of the summer term this year.
Instead, students at the 930-pupil school were given the opportunity to take part in a far broader range of activities, including competitive dried spaghetti tower building and Boccia, a precision game involving throwing a leather ball which is undertaken by players in wheelchairs and is an official paralympic sport.
During the morning’s ‘learning conference’, students were given a choice over what activities they wanted to compete in, with other options including making sculptures using five pieces of paper but no glue. Activities included golf putting and creating a jazz inspired routine set to Harry Styles vocals. During the afternoon more athletically-minded pupils were able to show off their speed on the running track.
The school re-named the event ‘Thrive’ day and head teacher Sue Plant explained the aim was to create a competitive atmosphere in which all pupils were able to contribute by earning points for their house – rather than just those who were good at traditional athletics such as the 100-metre sprint.
Sue said: “Because we are a really inclusive school where children come from all sorts of backgrounds and levels of ability in different aspects of school life, we wanted to have a day where we could celebrate all those differences.
“Our mantra at John Taylor is that to achieve academic success you need to be happy and enjoy life. You can’t have one without the other. That’s why when it came to our Thrive Day we wanted to create an environment in which everyone could be happy – that’s the essence of competition and doing your best.
“Days like this should be about making every single member of the community feeling valued and hopefully we achieved that. Our Thrive Day still featured traditional athletics track events, but we introduced a programme of other activities in which students were able to win points. I think it’s important that days like this are still competitive, but it’s just about making a competition that enables everyone to shine in their own way. The atmosphere in the school was fantastic as they rotated on a carousel of games, quizzes and challenges in order to gain points for their houses.”
School parent Gary Dunne of Burton Upon Trent said his daughter Erin-Rose, 14, had loved the Thrive Day, and had won her event: throwing the shot put, in which she achieved a distance of 6.2 metres.
He said: “For those children who aren’t necessarily so sporty, it was great that they had different activities for all of them.”
Another school parent, Donna Ellis, also of Burton, said her daughter Poppy had also really enjoyed the day, and had lifted the trophy on behalf of the winning team.
“Poppy loves John Taylor,” said Donna. “It’s a brilliantly inclusive school.”
Part of the John Taylor Multi Academy Trust, John Taylor Free School was the first secondary school in Staffordshire to open for 25 years when it started in 2018. The school has a waiting list for each year group and is set to welcome 1,170 pupils in 2022. Children from a wide geographical area attend the school, coming from as far away as Lichfield, Swadlincote and Hilton as well as Burton-upon-Trent.
