“Today was a good day.” Dr John Guy OBE, former Principal of Farnborough Sixth Form College and advisor to countless governmental committees, said these words to me whilst we sat together on the boundary of the cricket pitch at Farnborough Sixth.
Teachers —people— define their careers in all kinds of ways. Some define it by their pay level, others by job title and yet others by how many schools and colleges they worked in. I judge my career by both the number and the scale of the risks that I have taken and the learning and growth I derived from those risks. In this blog post, as summer holidays approach in 2022, I want to share with you the first of my five biggest risks that have defined my PE teaching career. You’ll notice that I am posting these risks one at a time and that, with the exception of one risk, these are not about big career moves. Rather, they are decisions I took that were not obvious and that, in my opinion, helped to shape my career. Enjoy this first post all about risk number 1. I will be writing four subsequent posts where I’ll detail a further four risks that I wish to share with my readers.
Massive Risk 1: The Dame Kelly Holmes Olympic Event - 25th April 2007
My role: Senior Curriculum Manager Sport and PE
Employer: The Sixth Form College, Farnborough
The previously mentioned John Guy OBE was my principal at Farnborough. As well as agreeing to fund a brand-new (second) sports hall on the campus, John had taken the opportunity to beg Dame Kelly Holmes to officially open the new building. Kelly had —probably reluctantly based on how busy she was in 2007— agreed. The new sports hall was beautiful, with a wonderful foyer, a dance studio and a wooden-panelled sprung floor. It faced out to a brand-new hockey Astro pitch as well as a pristine rugby pitch that the College had invested in heavily.
Because John had worked so hard to get Kelly to come to College —literally, I believe, getting on his knees to beg her— I felt obliged to do more than simply have a ribbon-cutting ceremony. I thought about Kelly and who she seemed to be as a person and as an athlete and I also reflected on my previous meeting with her at Arsenal’s new Emirates stadium earlier in 2007, when she had presented a student of mine with the runner-up plate of The Guardian’s young sportsperson of the year.
Kelly believed in the potential of movement, she believed in the symbol of the Olympic games and she believed in young people. Therefore, I felt it my duty to represent this to Kelly upon her arrival at College.
At that time, Farnborough had a vibrant CSLA and HSLA cohort (you will read more about these courses when I publish "Risk 2" in the coming weeks). Therefore, I decided to work with the HSLA group and plan an entire Olympic event for the day. We organised 25 events, all to run simultaneously including games like the 800m 12-person team challenge, Indoor javelin throwing competition, the standing long jump, the 100m circular sprint, the 800m team rowing race and many others. Every event was collaborative, meaning that there were no winners or losers and, rather, that every individual and team contribution added to the event tally. Every activity was led by my team of almost 100 CSLA students and they were directed by my group of 20 HSLA students. Over 300 primary-school children attended and participated in the event. The children ranged from 8 to 11 years old and every form of diversity was represented, including a wide array of young people experiencing disability, making this both a Paralympic as well as Olympic event. Unfortunately, I am not able to publish photos of the children participating on the day for GDPR reasons but the photos are magnificent, showing endeavour and the joy of movement in every shot. During the day, every single primary-school child received a coloured and branded t-shirt, a goodie bag and a medal. In order to provide enough schools with their own colour, we had t-shirts printed of every single Fruit of the Loom colour. If you ever find yourself browsing for Fruit of the Loom t-shirts, you’ll realise how many colours there are.
The day went beautifully and Dame Kelly seemed impressed. She said to me: “James, is this all for me?” So, not only was she impressed but she also remembered my name from when we met last. :)
At 10:30 that morning, well before Dame Kelly arrived and with 400 primary-school children sat on the floor of our brand-new sports hall, I walked in along those lovely wooden panels dressed as Pheidippides, the messenger who ran between Marathon and Athens to inform the Greeks of victory over the Persians.
As Pheidippides, I addressed the primary-school kids, the CSLA and HSLA students and the teachers in attendance to try to inspire them to engage with our event. I played them the first video I had ever edited, which showed clips of Dame Kelly striding down the home straight of her 1500m win in Athens 2000 with Steve Cram’s famous commentary being interspersed with BBC documentary footage of a representation of the ancient games. I used music from a band called Clanad to create a sense of the old and mystical. I had hoped to be able to share this video here but Dame Kelly liked it so much that she took my only copy with her on a DVD I had made at home (I’m not complaining… I was proud that she liked it!).
The students were, to every single individual, magnificent, and the day went off with an incredible bang. I no longer have the exact stats on the numbers of miles the students ran, rowed, threw and chased but it was huge!
I went home to my partner and two-year-old daughter that night happy but exhausted and having had a lovely hug from Dr John Guy as well as my photo taken with both Dame Kelly and her medals. :)
Almost all PE teachers become accustomed to organising and managing big events but the point I want to stress about The Dame Kelly Holmes Olympic Event is that it was risky. The success of a crucial day for my College was placed, ultimately, on the shoulders of tens and tens of teenage leaders. It was placed in the belief that local primary schools would commit their time and energies to supporting our event and it was even a risk because almost all of the events were based outside on the rugby pitch. As all PE teachers will know, putting one’s faith in the British weather to deliver for you is not always concluded with success.
I am incredibly proud of this moment in my career and I am proud that it formed the backbone of my new relationship with a number of people including my own departmental staff, my students at College, the local primary school community and also with Dr John Guy OBE who became a sage and guide for me and my career in the years to come.
N.b: I tried to connect with John in order to let him know that I would be mentioning him in the post but I wasn’t able to reach him. John, on the off-chance that you read this post, could you please get in touch with me as I’d like to buy you a drink?
Thank you to Rob Savory, a friend and colleague of mine for searching the archives of the Farnborough Sixth Form College folders to find me some usable photos.
Thank you for reading.
James