Celebrating Our Sports

Launched this week, ‘Celebrating Our Sports’ is CCEA’s latest educational resource with a focus on shared heritage. The resource supports teachers in increasing pupils’ awareness of a range of important themes in sport including cultural identity, shared heritage, and equality.

Developed as part of the Primary Irish and Aspects of Shared Cultural Heritage Programme, ‘Celebrating Our Sports’ is aligned to the Personal Development & Mutual Understanding and World Around Us primary areas of learning.

Teacher and pupils will benefit from 29 pre-prepared activities detailed in two booklets.

CCEA Chief Executive Justin Edwards commented:

“Aimed at Key Stage 2, this resource is an engaging aid for teachers and pupils to explore shared heritage through the topic of sport. The broad spectrum of activities in ‘Celebrating Our Sports’, will help to support teachers across a range of Areas of Learning including Personal Development & Mutual Understanding, World Around Us, Literacy, Numeracy and ICT.

CCEA continues to develop resources as part of the Primary Irish and Aspects of Shared Cultural Heritage Programme to support the development of knowledge and skills of the young people in our schools and communities.

Speaking at the launch, Chris Donnelly, Principal and resource co-author said,

"This is a resource which uses sports to frame learning activities in a fun and imaginative way. Both informative and engaging, the resource can be used as a vehicle for shared education projects and, through which, World Around Us and Personal Development & Mutual Understanding can be taught and learned by upper Key Stage 2 pupils across Northern Ireland. Through exploring a broad range of sports, pupils will also discuss other important learning themes in a cross-curricular manner, delving into activities which encourage them to work collaboratively and creatively."

Notes:

Celebrating Our Sports was co-authored by:

• Liam Dempsey, Bainisteoir Oideachais / Education Manager, CCEA
• Chris Donnelly, Principal, St John the Baptist Primary School
• Paul Pimley, Professional Associate, CCEA

The pupil book describes the growth of several sports played in Northern Ireland and some of the key historical, social, political and cultural factors, which contributed to their development.

The teacher booklet contains suggested activities and learning experiences which can be used to delve deeper into the themes covered in the pupil book. Some of these themes include sport and cultural identity, gender issues in sport, racism in sport and influential sporting personalities.

Teachers can use the resource as a Thematic Unit or choose to explore an individual sport as part of a broader topic.