PE and Sports 2023-2024

Four of our classes were lucky enough to work with Chance to Shine cricket recently. We began by practicing our catching and Joe, our coach, kept increasing the challenge because we dropped very few balls. Joe then taught us how to bowl overarm and gave us some top tips to ensure our bowling was accurate. After this we worked on our batting technique and it soon became clear that we have some very talented players at Fir Tree. According to Freddie H it was the best PE lesson ever! 

PE and Sports 2022-2023

We recently took part in the Chairman's cup tag rugby tournament at Oxford University rugby club. Our first match resulted in a win 5-1, followed by a 4-0 win at the end of our second game. Our third game against All Saints was intense and finished in a draw  4-4. The pressure was on for our final game as we knew that All Saints had also won a coupe of their matches. Alas, luck was on our side and we won our final match 3-2. Well done to the team for your brilliant teamwork - we are super proud of you!

 What an amazing Tag Rugby tournament our three teams participated in yesterday at the Hithercroft Sports Park! A total of 9 teams took part, playing in mixed teams, 7 a side. All three teams played with determination and grit. Fir Tree Sharks kept on battling until the end and their performance went from strength to strength. Fir Tree Wasps scored try after try and impressed Mrs Bailey with their tactical defence and positivity. Having not won this particular tournament since 2008, we were overjoyed as Fir Tree Chiefs won every match they played and were the overall winners of the entire tournament. The team really complimented each other well, with some superb dodging to avoid being tagged by the opposition and such accurate tagging by the girls. It was a very well-run tournament and enjoyed by all - well done to everyone for taking part and never giving up!

Huge congratulations to our year 3/4 netballers, who recently came 2nd in our partnership tournament. You really impressed Miss Jordan and Miss Milsom with your teamwork skills. Huge thanks to Miss Milsom and Miss Peecock for running the after-school netball club every Monday.

Our Fir Tree Lionesses recently won the South Oxfordshire football tournament and we hugely proud of them. This means they are through to round 3! They played against the best teams in South Oxfordshire in a league format, winning all of their games, which meant they progressed into the semi-final as top seeds. The semi-final was very tight and finished 0-0, after normal time. Sophie P scored in the last few minutes of extra time to put Fir Tree through to the final. In the final, Fir Tree played against Nettlebed and Abbie scored very early from a corner. A few minutes later, Abbie scored a second goal which resulted in us winning the final 2-0. We are very much looking forward to playing the best teams across the whole of Oxfordshire - it's coming home!

 We recently had Team Rubicon to deliver a skateboarding workshop to every class. The verdict was unanimous...we LOVED it! The sessions were funded using some of our sport premium funding because we believe that there's a sport out there for everyone. Our aim is to encourage our children to be active by introducing different sports for them to try. Some of our children's confidence hugely improved by the end of the session and many of our children are now wanting a skateboard to continue to practice at home. With skateboarding now an Olympic sport, who knows if a former Fir Tree pupil might make it to the top one day. Our next step is to write to Wallingford council to persuade them to build a skateboarding ramp in our lovely town - watch this space!

Fir Tree netball club played St. John's school in a friendly at home. Our Team A lost 5-0 and our B team lost 5-1. It was great to see year 3, 4, 5 and 6 players working together as a team and for many of our children it was their first match. Mr. Wilcox bribed Issac to score a goal and guess what...two minutes later our only goal of the match was scored! 

PS. Issac is still waiting for his treat!

On Thursday, 9th February, Fir tree's year 3 and 4 boys and girls entered a football tournament at Wallingford school. Nine teams played in total and Fir Tree entered two teams. Out of 8 fixtures, Fir Tree only lost one game and one team did not concede a single goal! Unfortunately that team was knocked out on penalties - a cruel way to go out! We were exceptionally proud of the performances of all our players and can't wait to see them play again! Well done Fir Tree!

Nineteen of our year 6 children recently took part in a sportshall athletics tournment at Wallingford school. They participated in a range of events including speed bounce, javelin, relay sprints and paarlauf races. Our speedy sprinters won 6/6 races! It was incredibly tense between Fir Tree and Benson and came right down to the very last race. Our amazing athletes came second and we are hugely proud of them. 

Maths Orienteering

Alongside our Fitness Friday and the year 5s passion for the World Cup, we developed an orienteering maths course testing their mental arithmetic, measuring and football knowledge. The freezing temperatures did not faze the classes as they completed two rounds of questions, pushing their physical and metal fitness to the max!

Mini Marathon 22

The year 5 classes took part in the TCS Mini London Marathon alongside 600,00 other children across the UK. They ran, jogged and walked 2.6 miles in school. They were an inspiration with many completing nearer 2 mini marathons! This week they received a commemorative pin badge which they have all worn with pride. Both classes also received a Marathon Medal to display in their classroom. We look forward to competing again next year and getting even more classes involved!

Indoor PE

Rain never stops play at Fir Tree! With awful weather and the hall being taken for Sports Leaders training Year 6 adapted well to change. With the Men's World Cup in full flow the activities were created to keep up with the terms football topic. 

Silver Birch were keen to keep up their fitness by creating a football fitness circuit including agility ladders and dynamic dribbling along with core strength training and cardio all completed around the classroom. Cherry were highly competitive setting personal bests with their keepy ups. Rileigh, enjoyed learning a new game of 'Finger Football' and said he would make his own version for Golf when he got home. Whilst playing a game of Boccia, which worked on goalkeeper distribution, the girls were intrigued to find out more about the sport and researched past winners of the Paralympics. Stan wanted to create a new playing kit for Argentina, maybe it will give them better luck for the rest of the tournament.  

 We have used some of our premium funding to train our twenty sports leaders to transform our playground into an active place at break times. Day 1 of our Junior Active Leader course was a huge success and we learned about the qualities of a good leader. We discussed in groups and came up with some brilliant adjectives to explain the characteristics required - see the words we generated o the whiteboard photo above.. We also discussed the difference between a boss and a leader. Ayda explained that a boss just tells you what to do whereas a leader helps you achieve your goal. Today, we learned so many games that we could teach our younger classes - Torpedo, Cops and Robbers, Hula Tag, Surfers and Crabs, Under the Sea, Donkey game and Never Steal from an Ostrich. 

A large part of today was spent thinking about keeping safe. As leaders it is our responsibility to risk assess our game and our playing area to keep everyone safe. We spent time discussing hazards and what we could do to minimise risk. We're looking forward to the next part of our session which will focus on communication and creating our own games to teach others so that our children will be more active at break times and therefore become better learners, with increased concentration and focus.

According to Isla: 'This is the best course ever!' 

Day 2 was how to communicate effectively and we learned a number of top tips: 

• Stand where everyone can see you
• Think about what you're going to say and practice first
• Make sure everyone is listening to the group. Wait until the group is quiet
• Speak slowly and clearly
• Don't shout - save you voice
• Ask if everyone understands

We also discussed the qualities you expect to see in a leader when communicating e.g. stand tall, demonstrate positive body language, be energetic and model the behaviour you expect to see. Additionally, make sure everyone in the group is included and make sure everyone is engaged. 

We also learned another ten games today that we can play in our playground and teach other children to play. Amanda talked to us about how we can adapt the games we have learned by making them slightly easier or slightly harder. We are looking forward to teaching the Year 4's tomorrow and inventing our own playground games to teach the Year 3's on Thursday. 

 Day 3 of our Junior Active course and today we taught Ash class. It was great to see the leaders becoming more confident with each group that they worked with. Their instructions were clear and they were full of encouragement for our year 4 children. Amanda, our course leader, commented how mature and reflective we were as a group. After this, we invented our own games to play in the playground. We had to test our games to see if they needed tweaking before teaching it to our year 3 classes tomorrow. Of course, we also learned some new games to use at break times e.g. Submarines and Zombies' cave.

Here are some quotes from our year 4 children:

' The games were really fun and the active leaders were really kind.' FM

'I enjoyed it because the leaders were helpful and kept everyone on task.' FP

'They were good activities because the active leaders had clear instructions and fun games.' LW

' I likes it because the active leaders made sure we had fun.' MF

' I enjoyed it because the active leaders explained the games well and gave really good demonstrations.' MC

 What an amazing end to our Junior Active Leader course! Our day began learning the basics of first aid with three paramedic students from Oxford Brookes University. After this, we got to teach the year 3 classes the games that we had invented - this was great fun! We were very impressed with the listening skills and enthusiasm of Cedar and Willow. Special thanks to their teachers for letting us borrow their children for this session. Our afternoon was spent planning the fortnightly timetable of activities that we will run to ensure our break times are as active as possible. 

Reading in PE

PE isn't always about being active but also learning social and listening skills. Classes have been enjoying these books over the last few weeks as either a calming start to get ready for PE lessons after break or to be ready to learn back in the classroom at the end of the lesson. Its enabled us to have some good conversations about helping one another, problems that can arise and how we can help and also discussing issues within sport such as women's football being banned and the effect of this.

 It was dark, cold and extremely wet at our recent partnership tournament. We took three teams to the event and faced some extremely tough opposition. Sadly, it just wasn't our day, despite Harry B and Charlie's super goal saving, Stan's attempts on goal and Harry E's defensive leg action. We showed incredible Fir Tree values and kept our heads up and although we didn't gain a place in either semi-final, we were close! Well done team for superb team spirit - you battled on until the end.

Men's Football World Cup 

The whole school have been getting involved with the start of the World Cup. Every child (and staff member) has a team to support and have been taking part in activities across the curriculum including Art and PSHE. Each week there has been a skills challenge set in PE lessons to self improve and compete against others to help gain points for their team. Who will win the Fir Tree World Cup 2022?!

Year 6 are really enjoying their weekly badminton lesson with Jamie. Jamie is one of the top badminton players in the country and he's so passionate about his sport that he enjoys travelling around schools to inspire children to take up the sport. Our first lesson focused on hand/eye coordination and was a lot of fun. It's very important to master the basics first and I'm sure it won't take long before we become experts. 

We recently took two teams of year 5/6 girls to participate in our girls' football partnership tournament. The first game of the tournament ended in a 3-0 win for Fir Tree A. Fir Tree B lost their second game 4-0 but Fir Tree A won their second game with some super goal scoring from Abbie.Fir Tree A went on to win their third game 3-0. Sadly, Fir Tree B lost 3-0 to their opposition. The final game of the match was Fir Tree A versus Fir Tree B. This ended in a 3-0 win for Fir Tree A ,who were the overall winners of the tournament. Well done to both teams for superb team spirit and for scoring so many goals.

Team Building

Team building is a great way to start the school year. Each class has been developing key skills in order to learn more about themselves and their class mates as well as how to get the best out of them. Challenges have been set to develop leadership, listening and communicating skills. Many situations put them out of their comfort zones and really stretched their creativity. 

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Well done to our year 6 children who recently took part in Bikeabilty. The children learned about how to ride safely on the road and most children passed their level 2 badge. We were especially proud of Isaac and Mo. Mo learned to ride from scratch, showing great determination and perseverance and Isaac really impressed our instructors for the amount of progress he made in such a short space of time. We hope to see more of our pupils riding to school now instead of coming by car. 

Year 5 and 6 played some tough opposition but it was great to see such positiveness and perseverance on show. Team A played matches against St John’s A, Brightwell A and Benson A; though not winning the tournament, the team played amazingly and their team work was incredible. Phoebe, Freddy and Jack played amazing in defence, getting all the rebounds. Emily, Rhea and Laila getting lots of interceptions in centre, regaining position of the ball. Evie and Jenny showed their talents in shooting and got multiple goals for the team. The B team secured two convincing wins with superb link up play between Teddy and Alice. Sophie and Julia worked hard to work the ball through the middle of the court alongside Isla's strong defensive reactions. Alex and Ava gained more match knowledge to come back next year with the trophy!

PE  2021-2022

Cherry and Silver Birch classes recently did their Bikeability training with our coach, Ros. Everybody that did the training passed their level 2. Level 2 means that children are confident to:

Start and Stop with confidence

Pass stationary vehicles parked on the road.

Understand the road: signals, signs and road-markings

Negotiate the road: including quiet junctions, crossroads and roundabouts

Share the road with other vehicles.

Junior Active Leaders

Using some of our premium funding, our Sports leaders have had the most amazing fortnight, taking part in the Junior Active course. The sessions were 70% practical, centred round creating games and leading sessions for younger pupils with an emphasis on teamwork, confidence building and trainee led learning. The sessions included:

What makes a good leader?

Keeping safe

Giving instructions

First aid and CPR training

Inventing a game

Choosing Teams

Everyone involved

Making a Plan

Making adjustments

Playground clubs

It was amazing to watch our 22 Sports leaders blossom in confidence and develop skills such as: responsibility, organisation and communication. Our leaders are now qualified to run sessions at break times for other year groups. These sessions are proving very popular indeed.

Year 6 tag rugby with Wallingford Rugby club

So proud of our year 6 footballers who recently took part in a football tournament, playing teams from Goring, Stoke Row and Sacred Heart. We saw some excellent defending and attacking and some unbelievable goalkeeping from our two goalies. The girls thoroughly enjoyed their afternoon, playing with determination and confidence. Overall, Team A came 4th and Team B came 5th - well done girls!

Each class is lucky to participate in a fortnightly yoga session with our Yoga teacher, Phoebe. Not only is yoga beneficial for our physical health; it also benefits our mental health, allowing us time to feel calm and focus on our breathing. We have learned many positions - as you will have seen in the photos - as we practise our Sun Salutations. For many children it is their favourite time of the week and such a great use of the sports premium.

 Year 3 and Year 4 have been lucky enough to work with Chance to Shine cricket this term. Their coach, Kieran is so impressed with their enthusiasm and the progress they are making with their batting and bowling technique. Some of our pupils have enjoyed the sessions so much, they have joined a cricket club outside of school. A huge thanks to Chance to Shine for continuing to support our school.

Year 6 took part in the county hockey finals. After three very good performances, Fir Tree found themselves in the third place play off against Ashbury. Fir Tree went on to win that game 3-1, which put them fifth out of 264 schools. Wow!

 We were lucky to be invited to participate in The Chairman's Cup rugby tournament at the Oxford University ground. Our first match against St. Andrew's resulted in a 35-0 win. The second match against Orchard Meadow saw some brilliant tries scored and a very tight performance but sadly the game finished 30-20 in their favour. Long Furlong was our third match and our second win, 25-20. Sadly, despite a nail-biting loss to All Saints, it was our best played match of the tournament. We want to say a special thanks to Richard Keane from Wallingford Rugby club for our rugby coaching sessions - it was great fun!

 A huge well done to our Street Tag team. Click on the screenshot above to see the results of the Champion's finalist league - we came 7th overall. Considering we were a much smaller team than on previous occasions, we should feel very proud of this achievement. Well done to everyone that took part.

 PE Spring Term 2021

We had a brilliant skipping workshop with Adam from Jump Rope UK. Each class got to learn the basics of skipping and then were taught some really cool tricks such as: The double jump and the crossover. We also got to skip in groups using the large skipping ropes and some of us had a go at running in and out - this brought back lots of memories for the adults of how they would spend their playtimes at school when they were younger. We have bought some large skipping ropes because everyone agreed it was such good fun. We are looking forward to using them in our break times.

We are delighted to announce that Fir Tree Junior School will be participating in the Street Tag Oxfordshire Schools Games Season 1 from 5th Oct 2020 to 28th Dec 2020 and we’re so excited!

About Street Tag

Street Tag is a virtual experience where you earn points for all the steps that you do, whether you walk, run or cycle. Wallingford is now filled with virtual tags where you can score bonus points as you walk around the town, which will help us soar up the South Oxfordshire leader board! For communities, Street Tag is exceptional at bringing together families, neighbours, and communities to get out more, by turning streets and green spaces into a virtual playground, to increase families' outdoor experience in walking, running, and cycling more to earn rewards.

Week 1 results…we are 5^th on the leader board out of 20 other Oxfordshire schools in our league.

We swiftly moved into 1st place and managed to hold this position until December 28th, when Season 1 ended.

Drumroll…guess which school took FIRST place with over 10 million points, winning £50 for our amazing school… FIR TREE! Well done Street Taggers.

We are now in the Champions League with ten other Oxfordshire schools.

Each year group is also participating in virtual challenges against other partnership schools. The first two challenges are footgolf and a crossbar challenge.

Foot Golf

How many kicks of the ball does it take to get the football in the target?

Crossbar Challenge

How many times can you hit the crossbar in 10 attempts?

From 10 yards away for Primary (edge of the penalty box on a 7 aside pitch) or 18 yards away for secondary (edge of the penalty box on a standard full size pitch) see how many times out of 10 you can hit the crossbar.

'We enjoyed competing virtually against other schools.' Luke

'It was tricky to start but we soon got the hang of it.' James

We are delighted to have children volunteer to become Sport Leaders. Well done to the Year 6 children from Cherry and Silver Birch. All children had a Sports Leader training session with Nick from Chance to Shine. Nick was very impressed with the group’s confidence and everyone passed with flying colours. Below is Kian standing proudly with his certificate.

Cherry and Silver Birch classes have enjoyed their Bikeability sessions this term.  76% passed their level 2. Well done to everyone for demonstrating great safety awareness. We hope it encourages our children to ride to school when the weather warms up and the days are lighter.

Year 4 and year 6 classes have enjoyed their cricket sessions with Chance to Shine and our amazing coach, Nick. We have had six sessions to develop our batting and bowling technique. We all agree that these sessions have improved our cricket ability and have been immense fun!

Each class enjoyed a 3k jingle jog to spread some festive cheer. Children and some staff dressed in sparkle to race around the field. Donations for two local charities were brought in and we raised a whopping…..

Chance to Shine cricket.

Year 6 have had the amazing opportunity of working with ' Chance to Shine' learning how to improve their cricket skills. George, our coach, taught us how to improve our performance and learn the basic principles of the game. Each session was challenging, fun and fast-paced. George was hugely impressed with the enthusiasm of our year 6's and the sessions were eagerly anticipated each week. With the cricket World cup this year, 'Chance to Shine' have definitely whet our appetites for this tournament to start.

Here are some quotes from some of our pupils:

' I really loved the sessions. I liked how he changed the game each week - the variety!'

' I definitely have a greater interest in cricket. I couldn't do it before but now I can.' 

We had a hugely successful girls' football tournament at Wallingford school. Our Year 5/6 girls came first and third and our Year 3/4 girls can first! Well done girls for superb play and excellent team spirit.

Our year 5/6 took part in the partnership netball tournament at Wallingford school. Our A team played 5 matches and won each match except for 1. They missed out on first place by a goal. Our B team came fifth in the tournament and were superb, considering it was the first time they have played as a team. The drew two matches and lost three. Well done Lacey for scoring a hat-trick in the final game.

What a hugely talented and creative bunch of children we have at Fir Tree! To kick off the World cup fever, Fir Tree children were asked to bake a cake to represent a country taking part. Can you recognise the countries in the picture below? Japan, Germany, Sweden, Mexico and Portugal.

A huge well done to Evie Taylor and Maia Bridgeman-Hughes for winning first place for upper and lower school. Money raised will be used to purchase P.E resources. Special thanks to some of our Sportsleaders who stayed behind after school to sell the cakes.

In anticipation of all the mince pies we might eat over the festive period, Year 6 took part in a ‘Jingle Jog’- a 3k run/ walk around the school field. We calculated that 3K was 1.8 miles and 7.2 laps of our field. In freezing conditions, with plenty of festive cheer, Year 6 had a brilliant run chasing Santa and the naughty elf around the track- well done Year 6 for great festive spirit!