World Cup competition

Something else that has kept me busy - particularly at lunchtimes - during the last term is our World Cup competition.

The idea is simple - the children are asked to form teams and then they play against each other. In the infants the teams are picked from within their own year group and they must include at least one boy and at least one girl. In the juniors the children can pick their own teams, but they must include at least one boy and one girl and must also have a player from a different year group. This team picking process can take a bit of time, but it helps the children to develop thinking skills and social skills.

The infants and juniors do not play together (our school council said, "How can Foundation play against Year Six?") but their competitions run in more or less the same way (although with some relaxing of the rules for the infants).

The culmination of each competition is the final which is played in front of the whole school. A proper carnival atmosphere is enjoyed with classes all cheering for both teams.

22 teams played in each competition, so during the last term, six solid weeks of lunchtimes were taken up with refereeing matches! Great fun, but quite tiring too! Thank heavens I get a year off next year before the competition returns for Euro 2012!!