Testimonials

Ben is an outstanding coach, and consistently delivered lessons of a high standard to pupils throughout our junior school. He built up a fantastic rapport with all pupils, improving their engagement with PE and sport, and motivating them to achieve to the best of their ability. During an OFSTED inspection in 2014, Ben was observed in a PE lesson, and the quality of his teaching was commented on as a strength within our outstanding school.

We asked Ben to deliver CPD for class teachers to further improve our provision in PE and sport. At the time, there were varied levels of confidence and skill amongst the staff; however, we were inspired by the positive impact Ben’s coaching had on our pupils, and were keen to learn from him. His ability to adapt his approach to match the needs of the individual staff member was impressive, and demonstrated the depth of his expertise and experience. For teachers already confident in PE, Ben was able to excite and motivate by sharing new ideas and approaches. For teachers needing more support, Ben was generous with his time and resources: teachers were involved in observations, team-teaching, planning and ongoing dialogue to develop their confidence and skills in a way that ensured a lasting impact on the quality of teaching, and attitudes towards PE. A significant part of this success was Ben’s approachable and supportive manner, encouraging teachers to ask questions and engage fully with the process. By the end of our CPD with Ben, the team had gained a shared belief in the importance and impact of high-quality PE, and were more confident in their ability to provide this.

We have been using inspired playgrounds for a year.  We had an excellent training day with Ben who worked separately with teaching staff with their classes, playtime staff and our Leaders.

He gave the leaders just the right amount of training, allowing them to use the markings in their own way as well as giving ideas where necessary.  He also showed them how to use the ipads, which is great as they were able to do this in class as well as after their leader sessions. Our Leaders, CAPS, were already running clubs but for them to use the markings was time saving and they did not have to raid the PE shed.

The markings on the playground are colourful and even with our very limited space perfect for lunch play and PE lessons. We can adapt them to suit.

Our leaders particularly enjoyed working with Ben, they have access to the bibs and T-shirts and feel very important when they are wearing them.  They used the certificates to reward children in their lunchtime clubs and would give these out during our celebration Worships.

When we held a showcase session for other local schools, their confidence to lead groups in front of a group of adults from other schools was very noticeable. These leaders will go on to secondary school able to take part in their leadership programmes confidently.

‘More children are being active at lunchtime using the playground. They are making up their own games too’

‘We have children asking all the time to play games. They would sit and watch before but now they are joining in’

‘I think the playground looks really good and I am proud of being a PE prefect and getting children active’

Inspired Schools not only provided our school with high quality, engaging and fun P.E sessions that our whole school enjoyed engaging with. They also provided some of our children who had low self-esteem and needed a boost to develop their social skills and confidence in P.E. with small group intervention. These sessions were tailored to the groups overarching needs and provided them with an opportunity to develop these skills in a safe, trusted environment with a skilled member of staff who had the ability to bring out the best in them. The children looked forward to these mini sessions and we quickly saw the impact it had on the children’s progress, not only during P.E. sessions but also in the classroom as well. Lately, we have also been having intervention lessons planned by our Key Stage Coach which have supported children with gross motor skill difficulties and we have also seen this to be advantageous for those children when in the classroom too!

Our Inspired Playground at Woolavington Village Primary School has been in place since the beginning of this school year and is already a great asset to our school. The staff are so impressed with the children’s leadership skills following their training and how simple the App is to use. Children have commented that the playground is great because there’s always something for them to do and it’s keeping them active. They have requested another 4 square already as it’s so popular! I can’t recommend this company highly enough – thank you!

“The children have been really enthusiastic and have become far more active”

“Managing break and lunchtimes has become far easier, because if the children are occupied there are fewer otehr problems to deal with”

“The playground leaders have been showing really good leadership skills, it has made a huge impact already”

St Joseph’s Primary School installed Inspired Playgrounds in September 2017. Once the stations were down we were able to train our Sports Leaders on how to use the stations and how to adapt the activity that could be carried out. After the leaders had been trained, they were able to run sessions for the rest of the school pupils and teachers.

Throughout the year, we have held many parent and child workouts before school, the stations have been used during many intra school festivals and many teachers have used the stations as a ‘release’ between lessons in the afternoon along with general use at break times and lunchtimes. We have also set up a weekly challenge that incorporates one of the stations where children can earn 20 extra house points for their house. The stations are a great resource as they do not need any setting up time, the children are able to work at their own level of ability and can be adapted to incorporate equipment if they would like to.

I would highly recommend the stations as an instant, fun resource in the aim of getting children more active and achieving their 60 minutes of activity a day. We are looking forward to setting up many more school competitions and activities that involve the lines in the next academic year.

We have been using Inspired Playgrounds for a year and it has had a massive impact on the activity levels in our school. Our Playground Leaders track activity using the markings, with the app, and award pupils in celebration assembly with trophies, house points or an extra playtime. They then display winners on their board in the hall (see below). The app also allows us to identify individuals and groups of children with low activity levels. Teachers also use the markings as part of their lessons. Would highly recommend as it meets a lot of the criteria for the Sports Premium.