Knowing how best to communicate with them can be
tricky.
Conwy's Active Young People team have some great ideas based on
2013 experiences.
As Huw Evans -Physical Literacy Coordinator - explains, "opening
more doors" can provide a great deal of support for your
activities.
THE MESSAGE IS WELLBEING
You don't get anywhere by using the term, physical activity.
Start thinking of your work as part ofwellbeing, and promote
physical activity as an essential part of pupil wellbeing.
People will then realise that you don't want to talk about the
school's football or hockey team but the holistic approach that
every child should have the opportunity to be physically
active.
We used every opportunity to present this clear and consistent
message.
Remember that Estyn prioritises wellbeing, hence those
responsible for school inspections, such as governors and senior
managers will also have an interest and should be able to support
in your planning. A school's performance in the School Sport
Survey really matters.
TALKING TO HEADTEACHERS
We worked with a number of partners including Healthy Schools,
School Catering, and School Nutrition Officers to draft a document
to showcase everyone's roles and responsibilities right across the
county in terms of pupil wellbeing. The document also shows how
physical activity contributes to wellbeing.
From there, it certainly wasn't a one meeting approach. To
kickstart things, we seized the opportunity to talk to Headteachers
and Deputy Heads at an Anti Bullying Week conference. It was a
captive audience so we presented the findings as well as the
document we'd prepared.
Senior members of the education department presented to
Headteachers (primary and secondary) at a series of meetings.
Wellbeing was on the agenda so once again they heard about our
work, the importance of physical literacy, the wellbeing document
and the survey.
We also organised Teach Meets and invited headteachers, PE
coordinators and PE staff to share physical activity good practice.
The School Sport Survey has been a key topic, highlighting examples
of how schools and young leaders have used it.
DON'T FORGET GOVERNORS
Governors are a powerful group of people and we were able to
work with them really positively. Some of them have other
responsibilities and are often local councilors too.
Governors have a compulsory training calendar. We were able to
negotiate and add wellbeing to the agenda.
We invited all governors with responsibility for wellbeing to an
evening of training. We talked through physical literacy, presented
the survey and the data from 2013 and impressed upon them that it
needs to be acted upon and that it is the role of governors to
question and support schools to act on the data. It cannot sit on a
shelf.
BE PERSONABLE
There's no magic bullet for how you communicate with such a big
group of stakeholders. The biggest thing is to build personal
rapport.
Get to know the people you are working with and treat them as
individuals. Spend time with them and support them. If you're
struggling to get an initial meeting find other ways to contact
them, some prefer email, some phone, some have shared a mobile
number with us. Timing is key so get to know routines and make a
note of the best time to contact different individuals.
Also understand that people respond to different motivating
factors.
THE SURVEY IS ALWAYS POSITIVE
We don't want people to feel threatened by the data. One of our
key messages this time is:be it good, indifferent or poor, it's a
baseline from which to work from.
We're there to support and share good practice. There has to be
a comfortable support network. We're not here to force anyone to
change.