Climb any mountain – the modern face of PE and activity in school
A new approach to PE teaching, developed by a Derbyshire business, is on a mission to help transform the classrom.
Steps 2 Summit is an interactive experience that allows participants to track their own physical activity against some of the most iconic mountains in the world.
Each mountain is broken down into Miles, KM’s or Steps. By inputting their physical activity into their account, children’s progress can be tracked as they strive to reach the summit.
Colin Booth, who has worked in the primary education sector for over a decade, set up Long Eaton-based TLG-PE to help busy teachers to teach Physical Education via a secure, cloud-based, online resource explains the thinking behind Steps 2 Summit.
“Whilst getting children active in schools is not a new concept and childhood obesity is now a major government focus, many other methods of daily activity can become boring and tedious. What starts with the best intentions can often fizzle out over time. Whilst in no way a race or competition, Steps 2 Summit tracks individual performance and naturally creates a drive to succeed.
“Additionally, schools undertaking the 7 Summits Challenge are provided with a large range of cross-curricular resources, focused on bringing the challenges to life for each academic year. The resources are particularly beneficial in bringing some of the non-core curriculum subjects to life.”
Teachers choose if they prefer the group’s activity to be recorded in Miles, Kilometers or Steps and the Steps 2 Summit system will amend each challenge accordingly. Many schools choose to mark out a 1 km or 1 mile course on the school grounds, which pupils can then undertake each day. Many children challenge themselves to complete multiple laps of the course to push themselves closer towards the mountain summit.
Once a class expedition is started, a letter is generated to the parents of all the participants. This document provides the parents with a unique access code to be able to log into the system to see the progress of their child.
Additionally, parents and teachers can communicate through the Steps 2 Summit system, with teachers being able to add notes and pictures from the class’s virtual expedition to share with the parents.
Colin continues: “As a minimum, children should walk a minimum of ‘1k a day’ when completing a Steps 2 Summit challenge – this is done during the school day as part of the wider project. The whole project sees each year group go on a specific adventure to discover the continents, countries, wildlife, culture, inhabitants and climate of some of the most iconic mountains in the world.
“For many children, adventure, aspirations and resilience are sadly lacking. Steps 2 Summit takes users on a virtual journey around the world, providing a range of challenges to achieve. Do you have the willpower to summit the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest? By creating an adventure and by focusing on progress up the mountain, physical activity becomes less of a chore and more about fun and achievement!”
One school that is taking on the challenge is Lowdham C of E Primary School, keen to inspire their pupils, their motto is ‘Shine Like Stars’ an apt goal for any aspiring mountain adventurers.
Headteacher Ben Waldram comments: “As we all know, time is tight for all teachers so we are always keen to find ways to make lessons as adaptable as possible, bringing in lots of different areas of learning. PE provision is a real challenge for many schools but what we have with Steps 2 Summit is a system we can all use that is fun, educational and great for getting the children out and about whilst learning new things. I love the exploring concept and so do the children, it helps bring a whole new dimension to their learning and their physical activity.”
