Sports

Being physically active every day is vital for children’s health and wellbeing. We know that children are most likely to get into this habit when they enjoy their experiences of physical activity at school, so we ensure that our lessons and clubs are supportive and inclusive environments where everyone takes part and has fun. However, this does not mean we do not aim for and achieve sporting excellence; rather, competitive sport is thriving at Millbank Gardens, and we are proud of our recent successes in inter-school competitions in our borough and beyond. For these reasons, our predecessor school, Millbank Academy, achieved ‘gold’ in the prestigious School Games Mark award scheme three years in a row – and now, we are going for platinum!

Our youngest children take part in activities every day that develop their gross motor skills. Our Early Years playgrounds are well equipped with apparatus and equipment that helps them to develop their strength, balance and co-ordination, and our highly-skilled staff support and encourage them as they do so. As children move up the school, they learn a wider range of skills and sports, from gymnastics to dance and from football to basketball.

We work in partnership with a wonderful charity called Greenhouse Sports to ensure we can provide the very best sporting environment for all our pupils. This means that in Year 1 and above, children are taught by two specialist PE coaches, Coach Anton and Coach Tom, from the charity. Our joint vision is to ensure that sport for personal development is at the heart of what we do. We set the bar higher than just accepting that participants learn fundamental skills for physical development and life simply by taking part in activities. Our coaches carefully plan their work to ensure that, through their sporting activities, children develop a range of social, thinking, emotional and physical skills – from communication and leadership to self-discipline and problem-solving.

As well as the lessons from our own Greenhouse coaches, we welcome visiting cricket coaches from Lord’s during the summer months. In addition, children visit the Queen Mother Sports Centre for swimming lessons; we regard swimming as a valuable life skill, and so we offer more swimming lessons than the statutory requirements. These are taught in small groups based on children’s prior swimming experience, so all are appropriately supported and challenged.

Sport is not just restricted to P.E. lessons, of course. We have a large number of sporting clubs running at lunchtime and after school (and, during the summer months, before school); and our coaches run sports camps during the spring and summer holidays (as well as some half-terms) that are open, free of charge, to children in Key Stage 2. Coach Anton organises a range of sporting competitions throughout the year, from traditional sports days to events to coincide with major international tournaments. We also participate as a school at local sporting events on the weekends, such as the London Mini-Marathon and Run Battersea Run – attendance is optional, of course, but they are wonderful family days out. Alongside this, we enter teams for a range of local competitions, where we often see our hard work pay off!