Excite to Write - Sports Report Activities

The ideas presented on the following pages were devised by teachers

from the Chenderit Cluster Primary Schools at a planning meeting for
the Excite to Write project at Silverstone Study Centre. The project is
made up of three elements for each school that will take place in the
2008/2009 school year:

• A visit to Silverstone Circuit

• An interview with a sports personality

• A visit to Wembley or to a local sports stadium.

Student Consultants, representing each school, also met at Silverstone to

comment on the teachers’ ideas and to come up with their own sugges-
tions for activities. The ideas in green represent those teacher-
suggestions that the students felt were the most worthwhile. A list of the
students’ own ‘Top Ideas’ follows each section to provide a flavour of the
direction that they would like the project to take.
 Stadium
Visit

Pre-visit Activities Problem-solving Cost the actual trip to the stadium including bus and
ticket pricing. Compare with alternative methods of
transport and other venues.
Planning Plan the route to the stadium using maps or online
route planners. Does the bus follow the planned
route? Does it keep to the planned journey
timescale?
Researching Find out what pupils already know and have expe-
rienced. Research the stadium via website and iden-
tify missing facts and questions that can be explored
during the visit. Look at any virtual tours. Giving
different groups responsibility for an aspect of the
research e.g. stadium history, statistics, or events, will
allow them to demonstrate expertise across a range
of subjects during the actual visit.
Estimating Explore stadium photos and events to estimate the
seating capacity. Use Google Maps or Google Earth to
view the stadium and estimate capacity and size.
Analysing Use internet and traditional media to analyse the
home and away records, results and league positions
of teams. Read the team’s latest sports reports or
headlines and analyse the language.
Creating Find out about the rules of the games played at the
stadium. Try out some of the games in PE. Pupils
could create their own mini-games with the associ-
ated skills or highlighted rules.
Thinking ahead Pupils storyboard or plan any specific video, sound-
recording or photos that they might need to gather at
the stadium for post-visit work. For example, an in-
troductory or closing piece of video at the front
gates, vox-pops etc. Stadium research should help
throw up possible areas for a video or photo tour.
Questioning Thinking about the people who might work at a the
stadium and the types of questions that might be
interesting or appropriate to ask them. Create a ge-
neric class question bank.
Contrasting Show some footage of a match or event at the sta-
dium to contrast with the probable emptiness during
your visit.
Collaborating Use the ExcitetoWrite.net website to read about the
experiences of other schools’ experiences. Comment
and ask questions on the website either as a class or
as individuals.

Excite to Write 2008/2009 - Sports Report 2

During the Visit Gathering Take digital photos of the obvious areas of the sta-
dium and encourage students to look for the back-
story opportunities and less obvious subjects.
Recording Record sound/video footage for later editing back at
school.
Recording Note-taking or sketching of relevant stimuli. Teacher
could scribe or record ideas of younger pupils.
Questioning Try and find the pupils opportunities to interview/
ask questions of people working at the stadium and
to find the information to fill in the gaps in their pre-
visit research.
Comparing Get pupils to assess what the pros and cons are of
watching an event live. Where is the best place in the
stadium to watch the action? Compare these ideas
with their experience of live television.
Advertising Look at the advertising boards and sponsorship
presence around the stadium. Take photos for review
later.

Post-visit Activities Creating a detailed plan of the stadium.

Designing and making a new stadium.
Editing video footage using Window MovieMaker
(or similar) to produce a tour/diary of the day to
present to other children.
Editing photos to make a powerPoint presentation
about their visit.
Recording a sports commentary with a piece of
sports footage with no sound.
Writing a playscript - e.g. in the changing room be-
fore the World Cup Final.
Writing about the the sensory experience - (sounds,
smells, size , atmosphere)
Producing a marketing plan for a stadium with ad-
verts, programmes, tickets and posters.
Comparing stadiums.
Posting completed work to the excitetowrite.net web-
site and checking for comments and response from
other schools/stakeholders.

Student Top Ideas Scripting and filming an advert/film/drama/music

video.
Creating and editing sporty music soundtracks and
sound-effects.
Creating a podcast of the stadium visit.
Creating a virtual stadium tour. (The skills could
also be used back in school to create a school tour
for new pupils/visitors)
Presenting the results of the visit as a comic.

Excite to Write 2008/2009 - Sports Report 3

 Sports Personality
Interview
Pre-visit Activities Research personality and their sport. Create a factfile
and character profile. Post to excitetowrite.net web-
site.
Write a formal invitation to the sportsperson, the
local media or other attendees.
Use hotseating to develop knowledge and question-
ing skills.
Explore the language of questioning i.e. open/closed
questions, obvious questions.
Explore biographies to create a framework for ques-
tions. Create a question bank.
Listen/watch Radio/TV interviews. Practice the skill
of note-taking.
Plan the interview thinking about setting, media &
style and hospitality. Think about the final outcome
of the visit - newspaper, biography or website.
Give students responsibility for capturing the pho-
tos, video & audio on the day by letting them run
sound- and production checks before the visit.
Use a clues suitcase to build up profile of the per-
sonality.
Create some artwork or design related to the
sportsperson e.g. outfit, medal.

During the Interview/Visit Give pupils the responsibility for recording/filming/

photgraphing the visit.
Give pupils responsibility for introducing the per-
sonality to each group.
Interview - recording on video/audio/notes.

Post Visit Write a ‘thank you’ letter.

Edit video/photos for PowerPoint presentation to an
audience
Create Podcast
Post reports/photos to excitetowrite.net website
page.
Write a diary entry.
Write a biography.
Write a CV.
Follow-up art work

Student Top Ideas Take a photo of the celebrity with the whole school.
Create a welcome banner and posters to welcome
the personality to the school/village.
Create a quiz - personality competes against stu-
dents.
Create a school book of drawing and poems about
the personality to sell for charity. Give a copy of the
book as a welcome or thank-you gift.
Excite to Write 2008/2009 - Sports Report 4
 Make the visit a theme day so the pupils dress up in
line with the personality’s sport.
Write a report for a real newspaper.
Get personality to bring in items of interest related
to the sport.

Excite to Write 2008/2009 - Sports Report 5