Specialist Sports College

The Regis School, a Specialist Sports College, raises standards of achievement in physical education and sport for all students across the ability range leading to whole school improvement. A sports college is a regional focal point for promoting excellence in physical education and community sport, extending links between families of schools, sports bodies and communities, sharing resources and developing and spreading good practice. Miss Walton, the Director of Specialism (sport) oversees a number of exciting initiatives:

The “Pompey Double Club – Extra Time” is a project intended to impact upon the whole school and also extend out into the community. The aim of the programme is for parents to engage in regular and sustainable literacy activities with their children through Football. The intention is by encouraging children to read and write even more at home and with family members, their literacy levels will improve even further and have a positive impact upon their academic performance in school. When all of the set literacy activities are completed both student and parent get a free tour of Portsmouth FC's stadium and two free tickets for the Portsmouth v Burnley game on Sat 5th December.

The Early Years Huff and Puff is a family and community project that is funded by the specialism, and has been running for 5 years now. The aim is to develop agility, balance and coordination, the fundamentals of all movement patterns. 180 pupils from 7 different infant schools and nurseries took part in the 2009 Huff and Puff festivals. The project begins with Huff and Puff Co-ordinator Mr Sealby, visiting the schools or nurseries and presenting the scheme to the children and their parents. The youngsters and parents then practice their skills over a 6 week period at home before coming to the Arena Sports Centre and showcasing their skills.

‘Future Flyers' is a Gifted and Talented scheme for pupils in the community feeder schools. This programme provides pupils in Key Stage 2 the opportunity to improve their skills in a wide range of activities. Throughout this year the pupils have attended 3 high quality sessions at cC that saw them look at their SAQ skills (Speed, Agility, Quickness) through Tag Rugby, a challenging Gymnastics session, and a generic Striking and Fielding afternoon. Each session starts with fitness testing to show the pupils progress throughout the year.

Pupils who then become year 7 at TRS are monitored throughout their time at the school and continue on the Gifted and Talented programme, “High Flyers” run by Miss Chapman and Miss Knowlden. This not only helps to develop young athletes skills and knowledge further, but helps to grow their aspirations through trips to high quality facilities, including the David Beckham Academy, and inspirational talks from Olympians and World Champions including Athletes from the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust.

The specialism also helps to contribute to the whole school through a variety of other innovative programmes. The “Live it up” group is a self referral project for year 10 students with low physical activity levels, poor nutrition habits or a general lack of concentration or confidence. The aim is to inspire individuals to take responsibility for their own lifestyle and futures. The 12 week scheme has increased and improved the physical, social, mental and nutritional wellbeing of the participants. Evidence shows positive lifestyle changes and improvements of Body Mass Index values. The programme is run by our in house exercise and fitness professional Jodie Rix , who specialises in group exercise for all ages including Pilates, Zumba and Cheerleading.

The Young Rangers project in KS3 brings new friendship groups together and pupils develop an appreciation of nature and the environment by taking the classroom outside. Making learning ’REAL’ using practical experiences relative to the curriculum, this includes forces, friction, map reading, weather forecasting and history of the local area all within the safe boundaries of the beautiful Queen Elizabeth Country Park.

The concept of student leadership that is firmly embedded into Key Stage 3, 4 and 5 PE with “Sports Leaders” is now rolling into other subjects with the advice of PE staff. TRS now has Numeracy, Literacy and Science leaders . Mrs Woodward, TRS’s specialist Literacy Coach, after preparing the Literacy leaders for involvement in the Year 6 Literacy Transition Days commented that “our aim was to develop enthusiasm and a commitment to read as well as forming better pathways of communication with our parents”. Parental evaluations proved how successful the day was. “Introduction was good, proved how important it is to encourage our kids to read and to interact with them!” “Lots of enthusiasm from teachers, the library became an exciting place. The children are getting a great start with reading.” (Year 6 parents).

Year 7 pupils with an interest in Football and developing literacy levels are targeted to attend the Pompey Double club. Pupils attend two literacy and one football coaching session per week and are set challenging literacy activities through the medium of Football in order to improve their reading, writing scores and spelling. The Double Club is run in partnership with TRS staff and Portsmouth Football club. There are twenty four pupils in the Double Club this term. Mr Crittenden, Head of PE, said “the Double Club is a great project which inspires pupils to learn. There is always a culture of achievement and success and we are very lucky to be able to run this at TRS”.

The Sports College has invested in ”Cyber Coach” a state of the art Dance Mat product. The Dance Mats and their applications, including Maths quizzes and revision packages have been used not only within PE lessons, but are also beginning to be used by the Maths Department in order to collect and analyse data.

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