A Dundee primary school has been shortlisted for a prestigious sport award, in recognition of its ‘refreshing’ approach to sport.
Rosebank Primary School has been shortlisted for the schools award at the Scottish Sports Awards 2022, hosted by Team Scotland and sportscotland.
The school, in the city’s Hilltown area, runs a wide variety of clubs with at least one sport on offer every lunchtime and after school.
Some clubs even take place before school in breakfast sessions, in a bid to make them more accessible.
Free classes range from football and hockey to yoga and Highland dancing.
In total, 92% of these are run by volunteers – mostly teachers – and pupil participation has never been higher.
Luis Mordente, 11, a P7 pupil who does after school football, said: “I used to do football when I was younger but I quit and I’ve just started again.
“My friends were going and said they liked it so I got in the mood. It’s very fun and it’s making me better at football.”
Friends Rose Ramzi and Brook Muirhead, both 11 and also in P7, play netball.
Rose said: “I always wanted to try netball, it looked fun. Now I do it, I love it even more than I thought I would.”
Brook added: “I wanted to play because I watched my brother do it. I like being in teams and the people you play with – it gives me joy.”
The wide range of sports available are part of a school initiative to increase pupils’ physical activity as well as physical education.
Jennifer Heffell, the school’s head teacher, said: “When lockdown happened all sport stopped and it resulted in a hole that needed filled.
“Boys football continued to a certain degree but not for our lot – everything stopped.
“Then we had 18 months of outdoor PE.
“We wanted to improve the quality of our PE, so that it’s not just two hours a week and that every child is actively participating.”
Children were asked what types of sports they would like to try and new clubs including tennis and golf were set up to serve particular interests.
Jennifer added: “It’s something I’m passionate about because my experience of PE was awful and coming from a family of four there was never any money for clubs.
“We want to make sure that every child can access sport, no matter their backstory, because you don’t know who could have a gift if given the opportunity.”
The school has also developed a 15-week health and wellbeing course for schoolchildren and their families, called Best Foot Forward.
The programme aims to create and sustain healthy habits for life and is delivered in connection with Active Schools, NHS Tayside and other local organisations, charities and sport groups.
As part of this it runs family sport sessions, cooking groups that send children home with bags of food and diaries to record their progress.
Jillian Walker, Active Schools coordinator for the Morgan Academy cluster, works with Rosebank on the programme and she was the one who nominated it for the Team Scotland award.
She said: “This school is going above and beyond. It’s not just putting on a club it’s looking at the pupils and seeing who would benefit and how to get them to engage.
“It feels like sport is really on the agenda.
“It’s a passion for the staff and that filters down to the kids as well, giving them the encouragement to put their name down and try it.”
Rosebank primary is one of four Scottish schools to be shortlisted for the award. The other three are secondary schools, including Kirkcaldy High School.
See the full list of nominees here.
The Scottish Sports Awards 2022 will take place on Wednesday 7 December 2022.
Conversation