This morning started with me helping at the Primary School Sports Day. It was my last day helping with my wee Primary 3 class and they were absolutely high as a kite! I have never seen a whole school galvanised so quickly to get outside and beat the rain. The weather forecast was threatening torrential rain so the Deputy Head had everyone organised and lined up to go outside before it would start. Each class had taken a country and had made flags and we had a parade around the playing field just like the opening ceremony of the Olympics. (don't you just love Primary School :)). Once we were at our places the teachers duly took the flags off the children and hurried them back into the school to save them in case the rain came on and would ruin all their hard work.
Then the heats started. Because it is the Diamond Jubilee the school had all opted for traditional school sports - run, egg and spoon and sack race! My job along with two others was to give out the first, second and third stickers. A few years ago the school tried not having first, second and third and just "we all took part" stickers. I know the jury is out on whether it is a good thing to encourage winners and those who take part (rather than losers) but all of the children I watched today were all going for it as if they all could win and I kind of liked that. There was a dodgy moment when the teacher who was with us decided that the little girl who came in second in her egg and spoon race heat had cheated because she carried her egg and spoon squashed against her chest therefore preventing it from ever falling. She only went and disqualified her !!!!!!! And I had to be the one who didn't give her a sticker (I felt flippin' awful as I am always telling my two that taking part in big city marathons is more important than winning them because without us there would be no race for the winners) but I did manage to get away with the parents not attacking me there on the playing field. The learning assistant and I just slinked away and let the teacher decide the outcome of the egg and spoon races from that point onwards.
The cutest part of the whole morning was probably the nursery children, it was really easy to work out who had won because they were going so slowly. They were so enthusiastic and cute. The bigger kids were really competitive and some of them were excellent runners in the making. It really was inspiring to watch.
Perhaps the best part of the morning was the relay race. There were representatives from each class and they made up four teams. Each team took part in the relay. The P4 - 7's ran 200 m and the P1 - 3 ran 100m it was really, really great! Everyone got into the spirit of the Olympics (which was why they were doing the relay race).
The children all got a really swanky medal (you know how I like a medal) which was for the Golden Jubilee and the Olympics. It was engraved. Lovely.
Then the rain came on!! In bucketfuls.
So I decided that if I was this wet outside I might as well go inside and swim in it. The pool was empty when I got there so I had a free run of the lanes. I managed my 750 m in good time and was still feeling strong so I kept on going and ended up swimming 900 m. I did try to get my head under the water but I nearly drowned gulping down half the pool. I have got a lesson planned with Andy and Rhona's swimming teacher after the hols so hopefully she will get me sorted out. I know my problem is that I think too much about breathing and then I panic that I can't breath and then everything goes to pot! aagghh!! I know my time would improve if I could just get the hang of breathing under water. I will do it!
Anyway, that was today's sporting events. Maybe there will be some future Olympic hopefuls on that field today - I am pretty sure Usain Bolt must have won the odd egg and spoon race in his early days :)
Oh, and happy birthday to my niece, Jessica, who is a big five year old girl today :)
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