The School Games, which is funded by Sport England National Lottery funding and delivered by the Youth Sport Trust, is a government led programme designed to deliver competitive school sport to all young people.

A network of School Games Organisers (SGOs) and School Games County Alliances have worked alongside the Youth Sport Trust in delivering three distinct levels of competition since the Games' inception in 2010 - ranging from intra - inter school activity, in addition to the National Finals, which is supported by National Governing Bodies.

The School Games Mark is a government led awards scheme launched in 2012 to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community. Participating in this process allows schools to evaluate their PE provision and assists them in developing an action plan for future progress.

As a school, we were awarded the Gold School Games Award in 2018/19 and also received the School Games Award for participation in 'Virtual' Events in 2019/20. 

We have now been awarded the School Games Gold Award for 2021/22. Have a look at our news story here for more information. 

At St. George's, we have fully embraced the School Games' approach to competition. ON their website, they say:

Competition is an emotive word, it can trigger feelings of dread, excitement and many other emotions in all of us but one thing is for certain, competition is a significant part of life within and beyond sport in school, in the community and in broader society. Competition can occur when you are striving towards a goal by yourself, with or against others. Learning not to fear it, to thrive in it and accurately reflect on it is crucial to flourishing in life.

As such, we provide opportunities for pupils to experience competition. We work hard to ensure our pupils can access School Games competitions to compete against other schools. We also run regular intra-school competitions. When running these events, we ensure that we fulfil the School Games' five principles of competition:

1. The young person’s motivation, competence and confidence are at the centre of the competition.
2. The focus is on the process rather than the outcome (on the learning and values development of the young person rather than the result).
3. Volunteers, leaders and officials are appropriately trained and display behaviours reflective of the nature of the competition.
4. The environment is safe and creates opportunities to learn and maximise social development.
5. The facility and the environment that is created for the competition reflects the motivations, competence and confidence of the young people and format of the competition.

After each event, we update the Competition board in the Key Stage 2 hall so that we can keep track of our personal and collective successes. 

St. George's is a Daily Mile School. The Daily Mile is a social physical activity, with children running or jogging – at their own pace – in the fresh air with friends. Children can occasionally walk to catch their breath, if necessary, but should aim to run or jog for the full 15 minutes. We want every child to have the opportunity to do The Daily Mile at primary school, and are now working to build The Daily Mile’s community with schools, local councils, sports bodies and other supporters in the UK and beyond.

What the Daily Mile website says about the initiative:

The aim of The Daily Mile is to improve the physical, social, emotional and mental health and wellbeing of our children – regardless of age, ability or personal circumstances.

The Universities of Stirling, Edinburgh and Highlands & Islands found that 15 minutes of self-paced exercise, such as The Daily Mile, is beneficial for pupils’ cognition and wellbeing.

To find out more, visit the Daily Mile website, here.

Let’s get active! The UK Chief Medical Officers have now recommended that each child should be active for 60 minutes per day. 

The recommendation is that schools provide 30 minutes of being active on top of the current provision: 2 hours of P.E a week. The other 30 minutes should be completed outside of school – this can be going to a sports specific club or even just kicking a ball in the garden, as long as the child is active! 

At St George’s all children complete the Daily Mile, which is 15minutes of activity. The other 15+ minutes come from a variety of active learning lessons and brain breaks: from active maths to dancing and yoga. 

Every Friday, we total our class's total active minutes and announce the winner in Celebration Worship. 

Being a School Games School, we have adopted the six School Games values:

Passion, Self-Belief, Respect, Honesty, Determination and Teamwork.

These were developed by young people to recognise how the experience of sport should be epitomised and embodied within schools, and to reflect the 'spirit' of the School Games.

We encourage pupils to apply the Sporting Spirits in all PE sessions, playtimes and intra and inter-school competitions. 

If pupils go above and beyond, their name is written on our class Sporting Spirit recognition board in our classrooms. 

At St. George's we offer weekly swimming lessons across the Summer term in Year 4. This takes place at Forest Hill Baths, which is a five-minute walk from school. 

At break and lunchtimes, our playgrounds are full of opportunities for pupils to participate in active games or sports. 

We have a large collection of skipping ropes for pupils of all ages. We also have a large basketball court and multiple 'Four Square' courts. Our multi-sport court, which has an astroturfed surface, rotates between volleyball, tennis and football, with each class having access twice a week across both break times. 

We work with lots of partners to provide specialist provision in PE sessions and after school clubs. 

Some of our partners this year have included:

• Honor Oak Panthers Hockey Club
• J.L. Tennis Academy
• Platform Cricket