Year One pupils at Cuddington Croft School in Cheam may only have been two years old when the London 2012 Olympics took place but they will have no excuse for not knowing about all that is going on in Rio next month after a series of lessons about the Olympic Games.

Children were taught about the Games’ ancient origins, how the tradition was revived in the late 19th century, and how they have grown into the worldwide event that they have become today.
Looking at the different sports and gathering data about them were incorporated into maths classes, and the children then got to imagine what life would be like as an Olympian themselves, which was used as the basis for a literacy exercise.

“The Olympic Games are such a big thing that’s going to be inescapable this summer, but it takes place outside the school term, so it seemed the obvious thing to do to try and make some lessons out of it just a few weeks early,” said Year One teacher Atia Shakoor.

“The children designed their own medals and also learnt about how the Games have taken place all around the world, as part of our ‘Where shall we go?’ learning topic.”

The themed events took place during sports week at Cuddington Croft, a member of the Surrey-based GLF Schools multi-academy trust group, and certainly did their bit to light the flame of enthusiasm for the Games in the youngsters.

“We even made our own Olympic torches,” Mrs Shakoor added, “incorporating the Olympic colours and also those of the Rio Games themselves. It’s nice to think that in the summer, when the Games are on, they’ll be able to connect what they’re seeing to something they’ve learnt about in the classroom.”