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Olympic lessons for Medway schools

The Olympics will be used to inspire children throughout Medway in a range of school subjects thanks to a new initiative.

Our Medway 2012 is a four-year project at primary schools throughout the Towns, building up to the London games.

It will give teachers free reign to introduce the Olympics into their curriculum, incorporating it in lessons as varied as art and science.

They will be asked to use the Olympics to introduce ideas such as citizenship, community, change and culture into regular lessons, as well as tackling the subjects of heritage, leisure, health and the environment.

Schools will also be assigned a country at random and will be asked to study and follow the country’s Olympic preparations. More than 50 of Medway’s 87 primary schools have signed up to the scheme and more are expected to join before it is officially launched on Wednesday .

Medway 2012 manager Bob Dimond, said: “We really want to engage with children whether they are interested in sport or not. Not every child wants to go out and be Chris Hoy.

“What we have tried to do is set out a framework that gives schools the opportunity to explore the benefits of 2012, linked into Medway, linked into overseas schools in any way that suits them.

“We’re really not saying they must do this or must do that. It may be they want to study the Cultural Olympiad in an art lesson or learn about different cultures in terms of geography.

“We’ve set down some basic bench marks, how they achieve them is up to the school.”

The scheme could even see children from Medway take part in cultural exchanges with overseas schools, visits to sports stadiums and trips to museums.

Parents will be kept up to date via a website and an exhibition is planned for the end of every academic year.

Mr Dimond said: “A key part of the London bid was engaging children around the world and creating a legacy for our children. We very much see this scheme as a way of doing that.”

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