Wednesday assemblies for KS2 this year have twin themes.

Theme One is getting the massed audience to learn and sing along to ‘classic’ or topical tunes. To mark the change of monarch, we learned ‘Sing’ – the Commonwealth song by Gary Barlow and Andrew Lloyd Webber, and to mark Black History Month the children learned the words and music to the spiritual ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’.

Theme Two is about inspiring children by introducing them to people and discussing activities they may not have yet experienced.

We have been lucky enough to have three exceptional visitors to give the children a feel for what it takes to achieve in specific sports. We have plans to invite musicians and artists in future weeks, but so far we have covered three sports – rowing, basketball and football – in the company of experts – former pupil and GB rower Phoebe Snowden, Reading Rockets’ Jordan Jackson and Steph Johnson, and today FC Porto’s Danny Loader.

The speakers were asked to deliver a simple message to the children which would be memorable. Phoebe urged them to ‘try everything’ – highlighting that as the way she ended up rowing. Steph’s message was about the accessibility of all sports to all people (including disabled sportspeople), and Danny spoke about the need to enjoy the whole process – not just the matches, but also the training, the travelling, the nutrition, and all the ups and downs that accompany high-level sport.

We are very grateful to the speakers for their time and to the children for remaining attentive and interested throughout.

Thanks also to Miss Snowden, Miss Green and Dr Loader for organising the visits.

Phoebe with the GB Rowing team

Danny scoring for Porto

Steph Johnson – Reading Rockets

Phoebe Snowden – GB Rowing

Danny Loader – FC Porto

Jordan scoring for Reading Rockets