The award was delivered in 2 blocks covering two mornings to a group of 30 Year 5 children who, upon moving to Year 6 will spend their final Year of Primary School being Active Ambassadors. The award is a hybrid delivery approach with half the time spent inside the classroom and half the time spent active, either experiencing what good leadership looks and feels like, or practising their own leadership.

In the classroom the group were introduced to the 6 key leadership skills and behaviours. The skills introduced are organisation, courage, kindness, enthusiasm, teamwork, and reflective. The group are also introduced to elements of leadership such as duty of care, activity planning and the reasons we want to make our school more active. “Working through the booklet was a fun way to learn new things like how to keep people safe and plan fun activities for the children in our school using the leadership skills we learned, I want to be a teacher when I am older so I hope I can do more leadership awards as I get older” (Annie, Year 5 Active Ambassador).

When outside the group were introduced to the 10 activities that they will oversee the leading of at lunch times on rotation by coach Jake, who showed what a good leader looks like using all his skills and behaviours so the group could see them in action. Having delivered on the course Jake said “The group were so engaged and enthused by the course, seeing them immediately identify with the skills and their ability to be real ambassadors for activity within the school was great! The school itself had placed real importance and status on this award so the children were enthused before the award even began and this enthusiasm grew as they realised the activities, they were leading were all enjoyable and engaging!”

Since the delivery of the Active Ambassadors award and the commencement of their ambassadorial duties, the Year 5’s have already seen a huge capacity uptake every lunch time (20 children a day) for the activities they are running. This totals out to over 3800 children engaging in the activity over the course of the year! As well as this teachers in Year 5 have noted the real behaviour change from the group, who now see themselves as role models in all lessons not just in P.E and sport with Miss Robertshaw; PE lead having this to say about the impact of the course for the children and the school ‘Behaviour at lunchtimes has also improved as children have a number of different opportunities to engage them as well as the Active Ambassadors modelling and embedding fair play alongside our “Sandal Roots of Learning”.  As with all sports, not only are they exhibiting excellent role modelling outside “on the pitch” but it permeates back into the classroom, which for some has improved their attitude towards all learning.

A diverse range of children have taken part in the programme; from those who confidently take part in many sports outside of school to those who love sport but only participate in the opportunities provided by school and even those that don’t partake in much physical activity other than P.E lessons. The programme has therefore not only equipped the children with the skills required to facilitate a range of games but has also given them the opportunity to improve their confidence and self-belief which in turn has supported each child in developing their physical literacy. Children feel proud of themselves for securing their place within the programme and are excellent role models for others.