Sport Relief 

Entries are flying in for Make Your Mark with a Ball, our national competition in conjunction with Make Your Mark. The idea is to take one or more balls, come up with an enterprising and creative idea and use the ball(s) to raise as much money as possible for Sport Relief!

Schools such as Ysgol Emmanuel in Rhyl are already planning to incorporate Make Your Mark with a Ball into their Sport Relief activities on Friday 14th March. As well as running laps around their school for Sport Relief, they will be raffling the chance to look after Bobby Ball, a Fairtrade football, for fifteen minutes. Bobby Ball must be kept moving constantly and will be filmed by students as he is passed from pupil to pupil.

In Kent, Fulston Manor Business and Enterprise College are going to have a 'Guess the Kick' competition, where teachers will kick the ball across their school field and students will pay to guess who can kick the furthest!

To add to the excitement, Duncan Bannatyne from Dragon's Den will be helping to judge the competition. Are your ideas enterprising enough to impress the ultimate entrepreneur?

It's not too late to enter! You have until Sunday 16th March to submit your entries to be in with a chance to win prizes ranging from a digital camera to an iPod touch. Find out how to enter here: www.makeyourmark.org.uk/withaball

Catch our fantastic Sport Relief interactive whiteboards being demonstrated at the Promethean stand at The Education Show, Birmingham NEC on 28th February – 1st March. Promethean have assisted Comic Relief in the development of our exciting interactive whiteboards, which include a voting tool facility, enabling the class to discuss. There will also be information at the stand about how you can fundraise and use our teaching resources to make the most of Sport Relief in your school.

Chesterfield High School Sports College in Crosby, Liverpool, won the award at the Gala Dinner held on evening of day one of the conference, for their efforts in raising funds through sport. The winning prize is a visit from Ade Adepitan who also presented their award.

The conference was hosted at The International Centre in Telford and was extremely well attended with hundreds of stands and thousand of attendees. Sport Relief was there displaying the free resources currently available to schools and chatting to many teachers who are currently getting ready for Sport Relief.

The afternoon of day two demonstrated how important the conference has become with a closing address given by the Prime Minister. Bringing to a close two days of celebration and inspiration, he focused on how crucial the school sport movement had become.

Chesterfield High School is currently in the midst of planning a whole week of events for Sport Relief from which will take place between 10th - 14th March. During this week they’ll be rising to the challenge by travelling the distance from their school in Liverpool to Beijing, in anticipation of the Olympics. They will be doing this in a whole range of sporty ways including running, rowing and cycling.

We've teamed up with Teachers TV again this year to bring you some fantastic programs to help you make the most of Sport Relief in your school! The two programs highlight how Sport Relief resources can be used across the curriculum to support Key Stage 2 group work and Key Stage 3 attainment. You can check out the programs here: www.teachers.tv/sportrelief and they’re also included in the DVD in our Schools’ Kit, which you can order here.

Look out for ‘The Big Challenge’ which is back in February, with three new action-packed adventures presented by Paralympic basketball star Ade Adepitan.

Young people are at the heart of what we do and we feel it’s vital that they have their say when it comes to our campaigns and the resources we offer.

So, we are very pleased to announce that Creative Partnerships are helping us with Sport Relief 2008. Through them we’ll be working more closely with young people of all ages throughout the campaign, getting their views and advice on how best to talk to their peers. They will be advising on a number of things from fundraising ideas to the look of our schools materials.

Keep a close eye on our website and see if you can spot their work!

For more information about Creative Partnerships check out their website www.creative-partnerships.com.

Inspiration for Sport Relief! Tabitha Sawyer, a teacher from Ysgol Emmanuel, first climbed 4560m high Mount Meru and then scaled Kilimanjaro – the highest free-standing mountain in the world at 5985m. She raised a huge £800 and is planning a day of teaching around her experiences, which she hopes will inspire her students to ‘Rise to the Challenge. Here’s an excerpt of her story...:

'It was a fantastic experience and definitely one of the hardest things I have done - but we did it!! We reached the top! First we climbed Mount Meru which is 4560m high. After getting down we immediately started to climb Kilimanjaro - the highest African mountain and the highest free standing mountain in the world at 5985M. We camped in tents on the way up taking a total of five days up and two down. Summit day started at midnight on a steep path. At that altitude it is hard to eat and sleep so it seemed to take every ounce of energy to make the summit at 7am, but well worth the effort as we saw the sunset glistening on the glaciers. It felt like you were in a different world as you looked down on a sea of clouds.'

'I wore my Sports Relief Socks on top and am pleased to say I have raised approximately £800 for Sport Relief. In the forthcoming week I am going to have a Kilimanjaro day in class. We’ll discuss what and where Kilimanjaro is, the change in wildlife and flora and fauna on the way up, the lifestyle in Tanzania and then read extracts from my diary to show the highs and lows. Pupils can then decide how they will challenge themselves for Sport Relief.'