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Press Release from Kings Manor.
‘Rock – It’ at King’s Manor School
King’s Manor School – the Specialist Sports College
in Middlesbrough has launched a fast and furious new game
into the curriculum and its extra curricular activity programme.
The game - ‘Rock-it Ball’ was developed in Yorkshire
and has started to attract international interest by both
pupils and educators alike. King’s Manor is targeted
to become the Teesside Centre of Excellence.
The sport is played with a ‘Rock-it’ which is
a control bar with a catcher/thrower at each end. It can be
played with goals at either end of a playing area or, as a
combat version that involves two teams of four players who
fire low impact balls at each other with points being scored
for successful hits on opposing players. Rock-It Ball can
be played both indoors and outdoors and even in the playground
by players of all ages.
Andy West, Director of Sport said: “King’s Manor
is renowned for its innovative curriculum development and
Rock-It Ball will now add a new curricular dimension. It is
an exciting and innovative game and the pupils are involved
in high level physical activity. This not only boosts their
fitness levels but also allows teachers to create an excellent
structure for the development of skill, co-ordination and
spatial awareness. The staff at Rock-It Ball have been really
supportive in creating lesson plans and delivering training
and model sessions at the school. Our target is to become
National Champions by the end of the year.”
Jon Cooke, Head of PE, has already planned for the introduction
of the sport into the Key Stage 3 curriculum. He said: “Pupils
regularly need to be challenged in order to improve their
levels of skill and fitness. Rock-It Ball, being such a new
sport, has certainly been met with enthusiasm by the children.
It has a distinct advantage over many sports in that players
can become competent over a very short period of time and
therefore do not need months of practise before they are fully
engaged in competitive games. We are also using a team of
sports coaches and volunteers from Middlesbrough College to
lead lunchtime activities and sessions in order to promote
the sport and increase levels of pupil participation.”
The pupils however are the ‘movers and shakers’
of new school sports and the comments from both boys and girls
have all been extremely positive:
“It’s mint sir”
“I can’t wait for the after school session”
That was really good, I’m tired out though”
“Brilliant”
“Can we do that again?”
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