West Lodge has many talented children within the area of PE. They are able to see the value of the skills they are learning and know what good and high quality PE looks like, understanding that PE is essential for a healthy lifestyle.   The children feel safe in their environment to take risks and challenge themselves.  PE at West Lodge enables children to apply a wide range of skills to great effect both within the curriculum and beyond.

Sports Captains 2021/2022

We are happy to announce that we have new sports captains this academic year. All the candidates gave very inspiring and motivating speeches, that demonstrated any one of them were ready to lead the sports for their houses with the upmost pride and determination. The children with the most votes from their house and newly elected sports captains are:

• Rashford House - Naishal and Jemima
• Turing House - Ibrahim and Janya
• Thunberg House - Ania and David
• Seacole House - Alana and Thavindu 

Swimming at West Lodge

We provide weekly swimming lessons for all children in Year 5 (Year 4 at the end of the year) and our aim is to ensure that each child leaves West Lodge having achieved the National Curriculum standard. Raising awareness amongst the community and creating better links between West Lodge families and Highgrove will play a crucial role in helping all children to become confident swimmers and develop this crucial life skill. We encourage families to use the facilities at Highgrove as a supplement to lessons organised through the school.

We have been able to offer our West Lodge community a new and exciting opportunity - discounted tickets to Barnet FC home league matches.  Child tickets are free and adult tickets are just £5 (reduced from £22). If you are ever interested in attending a home game at The Hive Stadium, please enclose a note stating how many adult and children’s tickets you would like, with the correct money enclosed in an envelope. Here is Barnet FC’s upcoming home fixtures:

Active 30:30

This academic year at West Lodge, we are aiming to implement active 30:30.  Science has shown the benefits that being active has on our brains after just 20 minutes of walking and how that results in being able to retain new information and re-call previous learning better.  Due to this, we are encouraging our children to have 30 minutes of activity during the day at school (not including break times) and 30 minutes of activity at home.  We would like all families to find as many fun and creative ways to stay active for a total of at least 30 minutes at home, for both the physical and mental benefits of the children.

Active Families

The following information is taken from the British Heart Foundation Website (https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/preventing-heart-disease/staying-active/staying-active-as-a-family) which offers good advice and practical ways to keep your heart healthy.

How can we be active as a family?
 

• Walk to and from school together.

• Ask children what activities they enjoy. Encourage them to follow their interests, and make activity fun – make a kite and fly it together, teach them to run, skip or use a hula hoop.

• Play active games with your child both indoors and out. For example, chasing, hide and seek, hopscotch and skipping.

• Find time to spend together doing a fun activity: a trip to the park, the swimming pool or a family bike ride.

• You can also sign up to one of our events, such as a run or a swim, and take on a challenge as a family.

The type of activity that helps your heart most is called moderate intensity aerobic activity. Aerobic activity is a repetitive rhythmic exercise involving large muscle groups such as your legs, shoulders and arms.

Moderate intensity aerobic activities make you feel warmer, breathe harder and make your heart beat faster than usual. But you should still be able to have a conversation.

Doing regular activity together as a family can help your children develop a positive attitude towards physical activity. Children learn by watching what parents do so show your child you enjoy and value activity by taking part yourself – and you’ll all feel the benefits in the long term.

Websites to Encourage Active Lifestyles

Here you will find a list of websites which have further information and activity ideas.

Change 4 Life

https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/activities#XPkBSJaWRwyj3gxc.97

GoNoodle (We use this at West Lodge. You can set up your own free account at home)

https://www.gonoodle.com/

Just Dance (Lots of fun videos to dance along to!)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChIjW4BWKLqpojTrS_tX0mg

https://just-dance.ubisoft.com/en-us/home/

Just Dance Now

http://justdancenow.com/

This Girl Can (Activity Ideas particularly aimed at older girls)

http://www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/activities/

Dan the Skipping Man

https://www.youtube.com/dantheskippingman