What is Team marathon about?
Developed in collaboration with London Grid for Learning Team marathon was first broadcast in eight updates throughout the spring and summer terms 2009. The updates followed a group of children through a programme of six training sessions leading to the team marathon event, which involves children running together to complete the marathon distance. The final two updates cover the event itself and reporting on it. The materials also offer support for a number of cross-curricular activities related to organising and reporting on the event and issues from the SEAL agenda like target setting and teamwork.
What is the difference between KS1 and KS2 Team Marathon?
The differences between the Team marathon modules at KS1 and KS2 are mainly in the distances they're covering in each of the training videos. Although the activities are often the same, the time/distance they're running is different. There are also slightly different content alongside some of the KS2 videos as some of the science resources are too advanced for KS1.
Watch this video of PE Consultant, Mike Croft who devised the Team marathon programme. Mike is a retired Head teacher with many years of teaching experience, and has been responsible for PE in schools across the country. Mike has also acted as an advisory teacher for Primary PE for Cumbria and Lancashire Education Authorities.
Each training session follows the same format:
- Warm up
- Stretching
- Pace activities
- Sustained run
- Opportunities for children to reflect and make decisions about their progress and set targets for themselves.
Through the Video diaries, you can follow the progress of six children discussing their development through the training, in preparation for the team marathon event. There are also opportunities for children to take responsibility for planning routes, recording times and monitoring their progress.
The module will also include interviews with professional athletes, which offer an insight into the training undertaken by top class athletes and information to assist in the organisation and hosting of the team marathon event itself.