Governors in School S01 E01
The one with the Olympic athlete
Being Chair of Governors is pretty tough. It’s a lot of responsibility, there’s difficult decisions to be made, and it takes up a lot of time.
But before the tiny violins come out — I enjoy this. I enjoy being part of school life, and I’m really pleased that I’m able to use my skills and experience to support the school.
It’s important to me that the school’s governors get in to school to experience it, and feel what it’s like to be in school. Whether that be at the nativity, taking part in woody wanderers, or meeting with subject leads as part of our named governor programme, contributing to school life is a key part of being a governor.
So when I found out that Mr Moss had arranged for a visit from an Olympic athlete, I was well-pleased that I could make it in to observe.
The athlete that came in was Roy Turnham, a professional footballer who plays for England and Team GB, earning over 70 caps, and scoring over 30 goals. Roy has 0% vision.
The session was split into two parts. The first started with an hour of activity for the whole school (including some teachers), run by Tony from Sports for Schools. The children came into the sports hall in waves, screamed, cheered, clapped and danced to the massive tracks being played over the PA (thanks PTA!), did five one-minute bursts of exercises (star jumps, press ups, spotty dog, etc) and collapsed around Roy’s beautiful dog, Pudsy. The atmosphere was amazing, and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.
The second part of the visit was Roy giving a whole school assembly. Over 450 children and adults packed into the hall to hear Roy speak, and it was absolutely inspirational. Roy spoke about how he’d played at the London Olympics, his journey to that point, and stuff that he’s done since.
The message for the children (and *cough* some of us grown-ups) was very much that belief in yourself and always trying your best can help overcome any challenge. For the kids to hear this from an actual sporting legend, who has achieved many things in spite of his disability was really powerful, and they were utterly transfixed.
Roy finished up by showing a compilation of some of the goals he has scored:
The children cheered every goal as they went in, and rightly so..!
This wrapped up a fantastic morning — one that I’m sure will have a lasting impression on the children. Huge thanks to Roy and Tony at Sport for Schools for fighting through the traffic to get to Tyntesfield and spending a brilliant morning with us, and of course big thanks to Mr Moss for organising it.
One of the things that us governors do whenever we carry out a visit is report back to the governing body anything of interest. What really stood out for me today was the behaviour of the children. They all participated enthusiastically and respectfully, and I was tremendously proud of the way they conducted themselves, so a big round of applause to all of us — children, families and school!
