This year, Bearsden Academy has adorned the corridors around the PE Dept with motivational images of ex-pupils to inspire and motivate their current cohort of students.
Katherine, who remembers very fondly her time at Bearsden Academy, was delighted to take part and met students from the school for a chat and a photo.
Following the setting of benchmarks by Education Scotland, the Bearsden PE dept sought to promote the many skills that are gained from taking part in sport and set about creating the wall murals.
Principal PE Teacher Lou Kennedy said “The murals were designed to reinforce the value of learning in PE. We chose the ‘Personal Qualities’ aspects of learning from the Education Scotland Benchmarks as we believe that not only are they catalysts for all other learning, but we want our pupils to be able to value and articulate these core skills and qualities that they obtain as they move forward towards the working world. These are: Creativity, Motivation, Confidence, Determination and Communication, Leadership, Teamwork, Respect and Communication.
We hoped it to be a positive and inspiring design, and so decided that they would feature images of current and former pupils who have demonstrated these qualities in their successful lives to ensure that it was relevant and realistically aspirational to our pupils.
We were very lucky and honoured to be able to include:
Determination and Resilience: Dame Katherine Jane Grainger, DBE is a British rower and with five Olympic medals is Great Britain’s most decorated female Olympian.
Motivation: Beth Potter- A long-distance runner and triathlete.
Creativity and Confidence: Dance- Lorna Lott and Kelly McVey: Owners of Euphorix Dance Company. Dancers in major televised events, and in National Dance competitions throughout the UK.
Leadership and Respect: David Moyes- Scottish professional football coach and former player.
West Rugby Club: Our local Rugby Club with whom we have an excellent partnership.
Hampden Stadium: Home of the Scottish Football Association that we work closely alongside to run our successful Level 6 Refereeing Award.”
It was at Bearsden where arguably Katherine’s sporting passions were set alight. Katherine credits the teachers who ran sports club at lunchtimes and after school and there was always something available to take part in. Katherine took up karate and thanks to her art teacher Kenneth Davis, honed her skills to black belt level and credits much of her sporting discipline to his teachings. In fact Katherine nominated Kenneth as a Torch Bearer for the Olympic Torch relay in 2012.
