On Monday 22 May, Miss Smith, Mr Bellamy and Mr Schlaefli from our PE Faculty took 37 GCSE PE pupils to University of Bath for a full day to help support their revision for their end of Year 10 exam. 

Arriving at University of Bath, we met our lead sports scientist for the day and walked across the campus, so pupils could get a feel for the site and to help understand how a university is set up. We had a Q&A session with judoka Renz Vallejera, who has competed for GB and is current British champion in his weight category. Our pupils were praised for asking excellent questions and the answers were extremely relevant for their course.

Following this, we attended a lecture about university life at Bath and the sports facilities on offer. It allowed our pupils to start thinking about a range of sporting careers and the different directions in which they can go. The main focus of the lecture, however, was looking at individual differences in relation to sport and fitness components. These topics need to be understood for their exam and a lot of practical examples were given that they can use in their answers.

Pupils were given a hour for lunch in the sports canteen of the university overlooking the athletics track, where they were able to watch athletes of all standards, from public members to national athletes.

During the afternoon the pupils were split into two groups, doing first one activity and then the other. One group took a tour looking at all the sporting facilities. The other group did fitness testing at the indoor athletics track. The tests consisted of Sit and reach, Sprint test, Counter movement jump, Yo yo test (like bleep test), Grip test (testing both right and left side), Agility run (testing both right and left).

Overall, the trip was a great success and we hope that our pupils will be able to refer back to this trip when in their exam and help to support their answers.

Comments from the pupils included these:

"The lecture was interesting and opened our eyes to careers in sport."

"I really enjoyed listening to Renz and his story of how much he needs to put in to become successful - from diet to training."

"I enjoyed the fitness tests as well as seeing the fantastic sports facilities available at a local university."