Windmill pupils on their marks for Olympic Games a month early

​​Pupils at Windmill School in Wokingham got a dose of Olympic fever one month early when the school hosted its first international week recently.

The Rio games may still be four weeks away but the pupils were primed and in top competitive form for a Road to Rio morning, as they spent half a day learning about competing nations, the history of the Games and the sports that make up the modern Olympics before a four-way competition between teams representing the last four host cities – Rio (2016), London (2012), Beijing (2008) and Athens (2004).

“The Olympic Games are something that can really capture the children’s imaginations and make them so much more aware of the rest of the world, but they take place in the school holidays, so this was a great opportunity to do something in class time to buy into that interest and make it a learning experience,” said Windmill’s assistant head Claire Scragg.

“As well as finding out Olympic information, each class was taught a dance routine relating to a different Olympic nation, and the event was rounded off with our own Windmill Olympic races between the four cities. Appropriately enough, Athens – host of the first ever Olympic Games in 1896 – came out on top”.

The event, organised by visiting company The Education Group certainly provided a lively break from the normal academic routine at Windmill, which opened in 2013 and is run by the Surrey-based GLF Schools multi-academy trust, and Ms Scragg said she hoped it had inspired the children to follow the Games in Brazil in August.

“London 2012 will probably be a bit too early in their lives for many of our children to remember as they grow up, but after our own Games, I’m hoping that Rio 2016 is something that will make more of an impact on them, and that they’ll follow over the summer.”