Students at Ormiston Ilkeston Enterprise Academy were inspired by an Olympic athlete during a workshop about leadership.
Maria Bertelli worked with students in Year 7 who are currently taking part in the Youth Sport Award, which is run by the Youth Sport Trust.
Each student is asked to keep a logbook and complete seven hours of physical activity in a week, two hours of learning a new skill and 10 leadership hours.
Once they have completed these tasks successfully they are rewarded with a certificate, pin badge and a t-shirt.
Maria competed for the Great Britain volleyball team at the 2012 Olympics and is also a former footballer.
She said: “We talked about what they have learnt from events that they have run and how they can improve. We discussed how important planning is and we also highlighted the life skills they need to be a good leader in terms of teamwork and communication. They have really engaged with the session; it’s been fantastic.”
Student Daniel Jackson, 12, said: “We talked about what makes a good leader and the skills we need like being a good listener, working in a team and communicating with each other.”
Sarah Callaghan, PE teacher at OIEA, said that students had learnt a lot from Maria.
She said: “As we have been learning about leadership during the work students have been doing for the Youth Sport Award, this was a great opportunity to meet an Olympic athlete and they really enjoyed hearing what she had to say about what makes a good leader.
“The students were totally engaged during the session and hopefully they went away full of ideas about how they can all become better leaders with skills that can apply to sport, their academic studies and in life.
“This workshop was also a reward for all the great work that students have been doing as part of the Youth Sport Award.”
The Youth Sport Trust describes the award on its website as “a reward and recognition scheme for young people aged between 7-24 to evidence their learning, progress and achievement through sport. It is a unique award scheme that puts health and wellbeing at the heart of developing young people, ensuring a brighter future for generations to come.”
