United Sport

As part of our response to the London 2012 Olympic legacy, we have created the United Sport initiative.

Shaun Dowling is Head of Sport at United.  Shaun’s background includes spells as a head of PE; a Director of PE and Sport in a specialist Sports College; deputy head in two secondary schools; and in a national role for YST. As such he is well-placed to support subject leaders across the group in both improving their PE and school sport provision and in using sport to drive school improvement. In his sports college role, Shaun also led a network of secondary and primary schools, leading training in PE and co-teaching lessons at KS2.

Schools in the group are divided into geographical clusters for PE/sport. These clusters meet in the autumn and spring terms to discuss their CPD needs and any intra-cluster sporting opportunities that their local networks are currently not providing.  Activities have included cross-cluster moderations, learning walks, sporting competitions and sports tours to other schools in the group. In the summer term we hold our national conference for subject leaders.

In 2016 we launched our PE and Health Curriculum and Assessment Framework (PEHCAF).  In doing so the group’s subject leaders decided on three main themes: performance (Fit to Perform), leadership (Fit to Lead) and health & well-being (Fit for Life), best summarised by this model:

State academies and independent schools have the flexibility to design their own programmes of study to fit their context and ethos within this framework, but as a group of schools we are united behind the underlying values and principles of this model.  One of our national partners, Sports Leaders UK, have helped us to design the Fit to Lead strand so that it builds towards their qualifications in KS4.

In April 2017 the KS1 and KS2 PEHCAF was launched and is currently in the initial phases of implementation.

Our group-wide sport/arts festival #Challenge2020 will see creative physical activity challenges over 20 weeks using the figure 2020.

Inspired by the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, ‘Challenge 2020’ is designed to encourage pupils and staff of all ages to get moving and support one another as they take on new and exciting activities. The challenge is an opportunity for participants to see for themselves the benefits of leading an active lifestyle and fosters collaboration, competition and character across the Group.

Throughout the duration of the challenge, schools will also be given opportunities to engage with Japanese cultural activities. Our primary schools will be celebrating Challenge 2020 by singing three new songs, written especially for the project by inspirational choral composers Joanna and Alexander L’Estrange. Contributions to the lyrics of these songs have been made by Year 5 pupils from Surbiton High School who have written haiku poetry about sport, perseverance and well-being.

This kind of Group-wide activity is the perfect example of how we strive to deliver an Education with Character across all our primary and secondary schools. This means supporting pupils in facing challenges they find hard, encouraging them to succeed only through persistence and determination, and instilling in them a respect for the people and world around them. 

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SIT-UPS

"School Improvement Through Using the Power of Sport"

United Learning’s aim is to bring out ‘the best in everyone’ in our group of state academies and independent schools. Sport is unique in its ability to make a substantial contribution to the physical and emotional wellbeing of students. Several schools in United Learning have used sport to intervene successfully with targeted young people. Whether these students were underachieving, struggling to integrate into the school community, or needing a boost in skills or confidence in order to be successful in school, sport has been able to reach those young people where other interventions may not.

Through a range of centrally run programmes United Sport aims to drive School Improvement Through Using the Power of Sport (SITUPS). This is the overarching term we use for all of our interventions using sport as the tool or hook to support students in our schools. Such work includes our work with other charities such as the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust (DHKT), Football Beyond Borders (FBB) and Snow Camp.

On Track to Achieve

Working in partnership, United Learning and the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust have devised a new pilot programme targeted at students receiving the Pupil Premium. Based on a combination of the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust’s existing successful community programmes and United Learning’s Education with Character strand of our Framework for Excellence, On TRACK to Achieve aims to improve the educational achievement of young people aged between 14 and 19.

Four United Learning academies are being provided with dedicated support from an Athlete Mentor from Dame Kelly Holmes Trust’s ‘GiveBack’ Team. This will take the form of one to one and group mentoring for students faced with challenging personal circumstances and/or a low self-esteem and a lack of confidence. For whatever reason, they are currently underachieving in school. This progamme aims to use the power of mentoring to re-engage these young people with their learning so that their potential may be realised.

Although the pilot programme is unique to each school and even to each student within each school, the broad framework within which it sits would see the young people working towards at least one of the following outcomes:

• T - Teachability (Young people to develop the right attitudes for learning)
• R - Responsibility (Young people to develop skills for managing self and leading others)
• A - Aspirations (Young people to raise aspirations and expectations on future life goals)
• C - Character (Young people to increase their confidence, self-belief and motivation)
• K - Knowledge (Young people to further develop their skills and knowledge).

Curriculum and Assessment

Over the past 12-18 months, the PE and sport network of United Learning have been developing a curriculum and assessment framework ready for teaching from September 2016. This follows the lead given in English and maths which began teaching a common curriculum at the start of the 2015/16 academic year.

Where do you start when charged with writing a PE curriculum for schools spread geographically across the country and straddling the state and independent sectors? A curriculum that needs to be distinctive to United Learning; flexible enough to be adopted and adapted by every secondary school regardless of context; and yet reflecting the essential national priorities for the physical and mental development of young people.

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Sports Ambassadors

The team of United Learning Sport Ambassadors are elite athletes who
all want to make a difference to the lives of young people.

Having recently recruited track star Jason Gardener to the team, our cadre includes World Champions, Olympic and international medallists, international performers and athletes who have been the best that Britain has had in their field. Some are transitioning out of their careers as professional athletes; others are very much still competing, including Alex Danson, Maddie Hinch, Lauren Steadman and Emma Wiggs who all competed at Rio 2016.

Each athlete has been linked to one of the six United Learning ‘Core Values’. Bonita Norris, for example, having been the youngest British female to climb Everest, represents our value of ‘Ambition’. When she speaks in schools she relates her journey from a non-climber to elite mountaineer stemming from her ambition “to see the curvature of the earth”. Former international athletes and Gladiators, Jenny and Wayne, on the other hand, deliver their Core Value of ‘Enthusiasm’ through fun active, practical workshops with students.

Feedback from the Sport Ambassador visits to our schools has been incredible, from students and staff alike. We know that they have been an inspiration to over 10,000 young people in the past two years.