From the youngest pupils in Reception, to the teenagers at the top of the school, along with parents and teachers, the whole Ballard community has been putting their athletic prowess to the test in the Virtual Lockdown Games 2020.

They competed across 12 different challenges between 8-21 June.  The games were set by the school’s teachers to test endurance, accuracy, balance, coordination and skill, in the home environment with minimal equipment required.

They included running, push-ups, bottle flipping, kick-ups, toilet roll catching and a whole host of other activities such as ‘how many tea bags can you throw into a mug in a minute?’ or ‘how many t-shirts can you put on in 60 seconds’ – all aimed at keeping pupils active and having fun.

Short instructional video clips were created to explain the set up and scoring system, and some of the challenges were categorised into either ‘Challenger’ or ‘Legendary’ to allow everyone to take part at a level they felt comfortable with.

Participants could try as many of the challenges as they wanted, as many times as they wanted to achieve their highest score. Pupils’ scores were submitted to win points for their house, winning more according to the number of activities attempted and the points gained.

More than 400 entries were received across the 12 events over the two-week period of the games, with many families recording their efforts and sending in videos and photos to be shared with the school community.

It isn’t the only ingenious means by which Ballard has been supporting pupils with physical education during lockdown. Sports teacher, Daniel Winch, created ‘Fit 4 Five’, a series of workout videos for younger pupils in which he demonstrated simple and fun exercises, based around everyday household items including a chair, a broom, a tennis ball and some tins of beans. Pupils were also invited to share their own mini-home workout videos too.