School children to help launch Shropshire Olympian Festival
Over 1500 children from 40 Shropshire primary schools will attend the launch of The Shropshire Olympian Festival – a recreation of the 1864 event – on Friday 17 June at the Quarry in Shrewsbury.
There will be an opening ceremony at 10am presided over by Shropshire MPs Daniel Kawczinski and Philip Dunne, before a mass synchronized Victorian PE drill for all participants.
During the next three hours the Key Stage 2-aged school children will take part in a range of athletic and sporting competitions throughout the Quarry, as well as competitions in dance, poetry, singing, recitation and the visual arts.
The Schools Day event will be closed by Olympic athlete and former 5000 metre world record holder David Moorcroft OBE at 2pm with a celebration of the medal winners and a massed choral rendition of the Shropshire Olympian Festival anthem.
Since January 2011 Shropshire primary schools have been building up to the event by using education resource material developed by Shropshire Council’s curriculum advisory service.
In 1864 William Penny Brookes brought the Shropshire Olympian Festival to Shrewsbury from its home in Much Wenlock and it proved such a hit that the following year (1865) the National Olympic Association was established and the Olympian movement took another step towards the international event we recognise today.
Jonathan Pygott, Head Teacher of Broseley Primary School, said:
“It’s a fantastic resource with enough material to cover just about every subject in the curriculum. Our children have been using it to prepare for the Shropshire Olympian Festival and give the event some context.”
Chris Cannon, Chairman of the Wenlock Olympian Society said:
“The Shropshire Olympian Festival gives everyone in Shropshire the opportunity to celebrate the role that this county has in inspiring people to join together and lead healthier lives through sport and the arts, especially as the time approaches when the world comes to London to share in Brookes’ Olympian dream in 2012.”
Councillor Mike Owen, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for culture said:
“Here’s a chance to celebrate a great event in our past that brought together people from all over our far-flung country in friendly rivalry and inspired subsequent generations to develop the Olympian Festival into the international event we recognize today.”
