On Tuesday, 6 students got the opportunity to attend a ‘Come and Try’ Workshop at John Smeaton Leisure Centre. They took part in Karate, Volleyball and Indoor Rowing, taught by the PE staff from John Smeaton Academy. The students learnt new skills such as counting in Japanese, two types of volleyball shots, sets and digs and the techniques of how to use a rowing machine. Our very own Mohammad in Year 6 set the record for the fastest time to row 50m, 100m and 150m, as we competed against the other 2 schools. This gave the students an insight into activities they may want to take part in when they get to high school. It was a fantastic event and the children rated it 10/10!
It’s been a great start to the half term regarding all things PE! Year 3 are on Gymnastics, Year 4, Dance, Year 5, Hockey, and Year 6, OOA. See below for a bit more information on what we’ve been getting up to.
Year 3:
We’ve had a great start to the year with gymnastics! Over the past 4 weeks we have focused on balancing and the ways in which we can help balance in more successful ways, such as: looking at something still, squeezing our tummy muscles, arms out etc. The children then got the chance to create their own balances when we moved onto looking at low, medium, and high and the differences between each. As you can see from the pictures, we had some interesting and skilled balances. All children have really enjoyed the first half of the term, as we reach the halfway point, we can’t wait to have lots more fun!
Year 4:
Year 4 have had their dancing shoes on this half term, looking at different themes and styles of dance. Firstly, we had conversations about beat and what that is and how we find it within a piece of music. We started off looking at the theme of spy and ninja and in what ways they travel and move. Children created movements such as rolls, crawls, tiptoeing etc. The children have learnt what unison, cannon and mirroring is so far from this half term, which then enabled them to use their own imagination to create their own choreography. We have recently just changed our theme to carnival dancing which is upbeat and super energetic!
Year 5:
In Year 5 we have been developing our hockey skills this half term, building on the principles of attacking and defending to take part in real game situations. The children have learnt how to dribble the ball with increasing control and how to pass and receive the ball when playing as part of a team. Once they had learnt the skills, they focused on decision making – when was it best to dribble and when was it best to pass? We took these skills into game scenarios and learnt the importance of space and how to use the width of a pitch to create more space for our team. Finally, we focused on defensive skills and how to tackle and intercept safely with our hockey sticks. The culmination of our unit was a six-sided tournament to put our skills into action.
Year 6:
Outdoor adventurous activities is the title of this half terms topic within PE for Year 6. Whatever the weather we are outside. This topic is highly based around teamwork, communication, problem solving and lots more. We have had every type of weather so far and it’s really added to our experience. We began the half term looking at problem solving and working together to be able to get from one point to another point with different conditions, such as only using certain body parts. We then moved onto navigation; communication was key within this lesson. We spoke about different ways of communication, through speech, but also thought about other ways of communication, as some people might not be able to use speech or hear speech. We had some great conversations about what we could do to help navigate our partner from point A to point B and there were some successful ideas too.
BMX Event:
Last week Miss Patchett and 7 children from both Year 5 & 6 travelled to Urban Bike Park to take part in a BMX Experience. Some of the children had been picked due to their great attendance before summer and they got to choose a couple of friends to go alongside them. The children tried new things, conquered fears, made lots of memories and most of all had so much fun. Children rode around the BMX track, up hills, ramps, corners and lots more as they were taught the differences between BMX racing and riding a normal bike. We like to reward children for their efforts in school therefore keep up the hard work and it could be you picked to go on the next event.
On Wednesday 26th April 2023, 9 students from 5C attended a Basketball workshop at Leeds Beckett University. The day was started off by the coaches introducing who they were, 2 of which were a part of the England pathway. The coaches emphasised how much they wanted the children to ‘focus’ and gave them little drills such as clapping the right number of times and at the correct time, otherwise a forfeit was given!
Then it was time to start the physical side of the training. Each child was given a basketball of their own for the session, they had to get used to the feel of the ball, the weight of the ball and how to control the ball by dribbling around the hall. Looking also at spatial awareness as there were over 100 children in attendance. After this the children started to feel more confident and then now moved onto releasing and catching to ball to themselves, as catching and throwing is such an important aspect of the game.
Next, the children were split up into 3’s and it was race time. Looking at dribbling, figure of 8s, using the ball around the body, controlling the ball in lots of different ways such as sitting down, laying down etc. If the children could do it in these ways, doing it stood up would be so much easier later in their games.
I think one of the most exciting parts of the day was next, the shooting drills. The coaches taught the children how to use the square on the backboard to their advantage, how to hold the ball and how to push the ball towards the net. From the beginning to the end of this part of the drills, our children made massive improvements, being super proud of themselves when they were successful in getting the shot in, as you can see in some of the videos!
Now it was game time! As we only took 9 children, we were lucky enough to be a team of just Allerton. This allowed the children to work together, communicate with each other and use the skills they had learnt in the morning and take them into a competitive situation. Miss Patchett and Miss Whiteley were extremely proud of the group who just kept improving. After each game we reflected on what we did well and what we would do next time, and the children really did take that onto court.
Once the games had finished, we were welcomed with a very exciting surprise. Not only had the children been coached by England pathway athletes, but they also now had the chance to talk to Team GB’s very own Danny Evans. The children were in awe of this sportsman and were totally inspired by him when he spoke about the way he had got into the sport, the struggles he had faced and the challenges he had conquered along the way. 4 questions were allowed to be asked to Danny and our very own Nza was selected to ask hers! Nza asked ‘Do you always get asked for your autograph?’ Danny replied with yes and the places he gets most asked for it.
This just about rounded up our brilliant day, until the coaches announced they were going to pick 2 children from each school who they feel excelled throughout the workshop. These children were then offered with a 15-week free training programme through City of Leeds Basketball Club. Evie and Rowen were chosen from our school and what a fantastic opportunity this is from them. Alongside this every single child was given the opportunity of 1 free session for them to continue their love for the sport of basketball and continue to learn lots more.
Our Allerton children were an absolute credit to the school, they all participated with enthusiasm, willing to work hard, asked lots of questions and were overall absolutely fantastic.
Yesterday our ACE football team travelled to the Horsfall Stadium, in Bradford, which is the home of Bradford Park Avenue, one of our local semi-professional football teams and school link, to take part in the Integra Insurance Primary School Cup.
There were 18 schools playing in 4 groups, each fielding 7 a side teams.
ACE stormed into a convincing win in the first game. We then lost but the team rallied and gave their all to secure 3 wins and a draw out of eight games.
ACE’s goal of the tournament came from Wilson with a spectacular volley. The goals overall were plentiful with Wilson Scoring 5, Atherio 1, Ayaan 1, Neo 1 and a disallowed one by Kael.
The boys played well as a team. Beaming smiles provided very clear evidence of how much they all enjoyed the afternoon. The boys were all given water bottles by the club.
As Observers the team made us very proud and their work rate was excellent. Every single player gave their all. Well done team ACE!
Once again we were lucky enough to take our Years 4, 5 and 6 to Leeds Beckett University for our sports day. We had an amazing time and the children were amazing!
Take a look at some of the photos taken by Mr Sherbourne here:
Within the opening minutes, a whipped in free kick saw Kenzie bag the opening goal and set the team up for the rest of the match. Throughout the first half, the team played some incredible football even in the most difficult of conditions.
Despite Gledhow equalising in the closing moments of the half, Allerton continued to stay positive and play attacking football. The second half saw this high energy attack pay dividends with Michael managing to squeeze the ball passed the Gledhow goalkeeper.
A special mention must go to Lana whose tenacious defending helped break up the Gledhow attacks and kept their front three at bay.
Despite the rain lashing down, our ACE footballers showed great resilience and teamwork to gain a well-deserved victory. Proving that they could do it on a cold, rainy night at Gledhow!
