It’s game on, for PE in schools
At Maccabi GB we concentrate on our “conveyor belt” system. This is something we’re extremely proud of; our aim is to engage Jewish people throughout their whole life, from Toddles events for age three and under, through to our Play On programme in care homes. Maccabi is synonymous with Jewish sports and, while the global pandemic has seemingly hindered our ability to engage with different parts of the community, it has also allowed us to re-evaluate our priorities and develop new strategies of engagement which are cross-communal, for all ages, all sports and from the grassroots to the elite.
As lockdown restrictions continue to ease, the Maccabi GB sports department can now focus on providing health and wellbeing sporting activities to children in primary schools, an integral part of our work.
This is National Schools Sport Week, so we wanted to take the opportunity to showcase the work Maccabi GB aims to restart with a wide range of Jewish primary and secondary schools.
Our first focus will be getting our school tournaments back up and running. This is a staple of the schools programme and we aim to run 30 tournaments a year across primary and secondary schools. Our tournaments involve more than 4,000 participants, in a range of sports. The engagement with more than 25 primary schools and six secondary schools is vital in bringing Maccabi GB into all of our schools but it also provides a safe, competitive and, most importantly, an enjoyable environment for Jewish children to meet each other.
At Maccabi GB we believe sport should be accessible for everyone; we are committed to this by running tournaments in sports such as table tennis, badminton, basketball, swimming and our Track and Field
Day, an annual event held at Lea Valley Athletics stadium, in which six Jewish secondary schools take part. This is alongside our staple tournaments in football and netball.
Alongside our school tournaments, we provide high-quality, professional PE lessons to 750 pupils weekly.
These lessons develop fine motor skills and a wide variety of sporting abilities. Through continuous assessments and monitoring of all students, our coaches can adjust plans to ensure every pupil develops on a week-byweek basis.
We pride ourselves on our ability to be versatile from session to session. Our coaches don’t only teach curriculum PE, they also provide lunch-time and after-school clubs. These focus on pupils having fun learning new skills.
Through a partnership with The Elms: Sport in Schools we are able to work with an additional eight schools and take the number of pupils we engage with up to 2,000 per week. We also offer their coaches training in working in Jewish schools and share curriculum plans. This is vital in building the relationship between ourselves and the schools.
We are excited that, for the 2021/22 academic year, we are embarking on a new partnership with The Golf Foundation. This is part of our ongoing commitment in bringing new sports to our primary school pupils.
Our trial of this programme will consist of five lessons with a select class, who will receive a new set of The Golf Foundation clubs for their use. The pupils will learn the techniques used to play various shots, providing them with an introduction to golf and access to a sport that many people never get to play.
Our long-term aim for the partnership will be to provide golf lessons within our curriculum plans for all pupils we work with.
The coaching will be provided by Dyrham Park Golf Club and its PGA professional, with equipment and curriculum supplied by The Golf Foundation. The project is being piloted at Etz Chaim Jewish Primary School.
We’re looking forward to bringing our tournaments back from September 2021 and meeting and engaging with ever more Jewish pupils.
Jordan Sapler is school and sports manager at Maccabi GB. If you are interested in hearing more about Maccabi GB’s work in schools or if you wish to enquire about PE teaching for a school, email jordan@maccabigb.org