The first Friday back after May half term saw our annual PE & School Sport Conference take place, this time with a few changes! We held the event at the fabulous New Horizon Church, a venue that provided a fantastic space, breakout rooms and facilities to better the experience of our conference.
This time we decided that we have a lot to talk about and half a day just won’t cut it, making the conference a ‘whole day’ event allowed time for us to get stuck into all elements of our organisation and include brand new aspects of our conference.
We started the day off with a fantastic, inspirational keynote speaker, Mel Clarke. A world-class archer and Paralympic medallist whose journey is one of sheer resilience, determination and triumph over adversity. She shared her experiences and stories from being an able-bodied child to a silver medallist at the London Paralympics and all the hurdles she faced along the way. A true inspiration.
Then we took the chance to allow our AVSSP coaches to assist their schools PE Co-ordinators in planning next year’s subject calendar ensuring it aligns with The National Curriculum. We usually plan our subjects around our competition calendar. For example, we start the year with Athletics to introduce EYFS to fundamental skills and to give children a chance to practice for our Sportshall Athletics Competitions!
Just before lunch we invited 3 members of staff from our affiliated schools to share their experiences/best practice and teaching skills to the other attendees. Martin Whiteman (Riddings Juniors), Joe Reed (William Gilbert Endowed) and Katie Daniels (Croft Infant School) each had an area to speak about OAA learning, assessment tracking and SEN/D involvement in PE.
During lunch (a delicious spread provided by the venue!) staff were able to enjoy their food whilst mooching around our new ‘marketplace’ section of the conference. We were joined by Derbyshire Cricket Foundation and Cross-Curricular Orienteering who both provided fantastic stalls for staff to learn more about their areas of work and opportunities that they provide for children. Liam, Anna and Cheryl also ran a section of the marketplace that allowed staff to check their School Games Marks, the competition and events calendar for 25/26 and our coaching programme offers and affiliation.
To finish the day off, we split our attendees into 3 groups who each visited a workshop provided by Will from Cross-Curricular Orienteering who shared resources that allow schools to deliver fun and engaging sessions, Rachel Start from AVSSP who enlightened staff on best practice for involving and delivering PE sessions for SEN/D children within schools, and Adam White from AVSSP who delivered a session on Motor Skill Development (physical literacy).
We’d like to thank everyone who joined us for our PE & School Sport Conference, we had a great day and hope you did too! Also, a massive thank you to New Horizon Church for providing us with a perfect venue. 💙
