Sport and Leadership at Wings School Notts: Cultivating Transferrable Skills for Life
At Wings School Notts, they believe that education goes beyond textbooks and classrooms. We are excited to share recent developments in the curriculum that focus on fostering leadership qualities and transferrable skills among their students. With a commitment to providing a well-rounded education, they have introduced innovative programmes that empower the students not only in PE and school sport but also in life.
Empowering Through Sports Leadership:
A recent evolution in the curriculum, alongside combining the National curriculums of England and Wales, has been the integration of an accredited sports leaders award, specifically designed for students in Key Stage 4 (Year 10 and Year 11). This initiative serves as a platform for students to develop essential leadership skills while participating in sports activities they are passionate about. What sets this program apart is its adaptability – it allows students to explore bespoke leadership options tailored to their interests.
Expanding Beyond Sports:
They are also planning to expand this leadership model into other areas of the curriculum, such as through the STEM award – a program focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This expansion reflects their dedication to nurturing leadership qualities across diverse disciplines, equipping the students to excel in various fields.
Primary School Outreach:
One of the most impactful aspects of the leadership program is the opportunity for the students to take their skills beyond our school's boundaries. Through partnerships with primary schools in the Mansfield area, the students step into leadership roles by leading sessions for younger children. This initiative not only boosts their confidence but also reinforces their responsibility as role models.
Empowering the Young Leaders:
To further empower their young leaders, they host inter-school competitions for primary schools that they lead sessions in, where the students learn to become event planners and hosts. This hands-on experience hones their organisational and communication skills, enhancing their leadership capabilities.
We caught up with Adam, Head of P.E at Wings who said: “"At Wings Notts we aim to use PE, school sport and leadership combined with physical activity as a vehicle to develop our young people holistically. We have created a bespoke hybrid PE curriculum, using both the National Curriculums of England and Wales, so that we can place an emphasis on developing our young people’s physical literacy and a set of imperative transferable life skills – such as determination, resilience and understanding health and wellbeing. This is complimented by KS4 completing an accredited leadership award that they use, with their newly developed skill set, to lead in local primary schools and organise/host sporting events with us at Wings.
We have developed a fantastic working relationship with several high-quality external providers, in particular Mansfield Town Football Club. This offer gives our young people access to attend sessions with professional players and coaches, at their facilities and ours, and match tickets so that the young people can experience a professional sporting event live. We do all this to raise both sporting and personal aspirations and enable of all our young people at Wings to fulfil their potential. All this has led to us receiving the gold school games mark and the privilege of becoming the lead inclusion school for Nottinghamshire for the YST next academic year, something that we are all very proud of”.
The curriculum innovations, particularly the sports leaders award and its expansion into various disciplines, highlight the commitment to nurturing transferrable skills that will serve the students throughout their lives.
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