Messy Nutrients – unadventurous eaters?

An article by Stephen Pritchard    No Comments

I found myself in a new situation recently when delivering some one-off tasters in a primary school.  The aim of the tasters was to drum up more interest for an eaarly morning badminton club that I run.  I had arranged a half hour slot with each of 6 KS 2 classes.  My plan (which due to the nature of the choices involved thoughout was essentially the same for all classes) was to start in a structured coach led way before gradually shifting control of the activities to the learners (Minerals).

The session started with a warm up activity in which all learners had a shuttle in their grasp and had to respond to an increasing number of instructions whilst moving around the hall (dropping, collecting, throwing, swapping).  I use this a lot in one off sessions and feel the key is to explain that I am aiming to make people make mistakes and that I’m pleased with the effort and improvement shown as the practice progresses.  Irrespective of the age group, this worked well as I managed the speed of increasing difficulty to progress along the “Comfort-Stretch-Panic” curve.

The crux of the session was based around developing individual hitting skills using rackets and shuttles.  I demonstrated to the group 6 progressive practices, working from forehand to backhand hitting, gradually increasing the length of the racket.  The first practice involved holding the racket by the throat with fingers on the strings.  We progressed then to holding halfway down the shaft, and end holding the racket by the handle.  Logical enough.  Players were tasked with performing 10 successive hits before progressing to the next stage.  If anyone was able to show me that they could complete task 6, I would reveal task 7 to the whole group.

Due to the numbers in the groups, the above was performed in a rotational way.  Learners sorted themselves into groups of 3/4 – I left them to manage it themselves, although a couple of class teachers intervened just as the valuable messy bit was happening!  So we had a situation where one member of each group was working for a set time period whilst the others observed and counted then the next person had a go and so on.

Teachers of the year 3 and 4 classess proudly looked around as those not hitting sat quietly on benches waiting for their go – their accelerated learning bit should have been when they were splitting themselves into groups!  The year 5 teachers were a bit twitchy as groups were formed, and similarly so when learners observing were starting to give instructions to those hitting – there was some “shooshing” evident.  What excited me, was the year 6 group.  Those not hitting could not help but call out advice, some were up and showing their team mates how to perform the skill.  They were calling me and telling me that their friend had completed task 7 and needed task 8 (one reached task 9 – I hadn’t planned for that!), they were clapping and shouting and generally excited and noisy.  Brilliant, a group all enthused with each others successes and sharing in them and enjoying them.  There was peer coaching going on, (Fibre) something I can’t have claimed to have planned for but which was an exciting by-product of the session.

The problems arose with different perceptions of “positive behaviour” between myself and the class teachers.  To me, the positives were the sorting themselves into groups and the discussion/disagreement etc involved.  To the teachers, the positive behaviour would have been sitting quietly until they were told which groups to work in.  To me, the positives were the interaction and coaching and support that the year 6 group offered each other.  To the teacher, sitting quietly and waiting their turn was viewed as the positive.

I left with mixed feelings.  I knew I would have increased numbers in my early morning club as I knew the learners had been challenged and had enjoyed their tasters.  However, I also had visions of the staffroom discussions at break time:

Yr 3 teacher “My class sat quietly and waited their turn, but I did have to help put them into groups.  I’m not sure he’d worked with that age group before.”

Yr 5 teacher “Mine were OK, little bit noisy throughout.”

Yr 6 teacher “Yr 6 were so noisy, they wouldn’t wait their turn, I don’t think the coach had much control.”

This is a genuine issue for me.  As someone who often delivers one off or taster sessions and goes into schools as an “expert” I am frequently judged on these performances.  Over the years, I have led lots of safe, simple tasters.  The teachers are pleased, yet I know the children haven’t really been captured by what I’ve done.  On this occasion, I felt I’d nailed it with the children, but perhap not all of the teachers.

I know this is an issue other Learning Nutrition practitioners have experienced, and having read thier blogs, tweets etc I think I’m aware of how to address the mis-perception before it happens next time.