Summary
Since 1995, the Australian Olympic Committee has developed for primary schools a national programme to develop the values. This places emphasis on the values summarised in the name a.s.p.i.r.e. (Attitude, Sportsmanship, Pride, Individual responsibility, Respect, Express yourself).
The aim of the initiative is to educate young Australians on the values, spirit and philosophy of the Olympic Movement. The teacher members of the a.s.p.i.r.e. schools have access to educational resources on the Australian Olympic Committee site. Over 200 themed educational resources have been created for this.
Objectives
To educate young Australians on the values, spirit and philosophy of the Olympic Movement
Approach
The name a.s.p.i.r.e. (Attitude, Sportsmanship, Pride, Individual responsibility, Respect, Express yourself) represents all the official values of the Australian Olympic team, developed for the Sydney 2000 Games.
a.s.p.i.r.e. is a large network of schools across the country. The teachers who join this network have access to much information and many useful resources on the web site of the Australian Olympic Committee. They can view and download free of charge lesson plans, worksheets, templates, information sheets, pictograms, the official certificate of the a.s.p.i.r.e. schools network, etc.
These educational tools highlight the values that form the basis of the a.s.p.i.r.e. programme: Attitude, Sportsmanship, Pride, Individual responsibility, Respect, Express yourself. It develops in particular competences in the fields of language, mathematics, information and communication. It encourages an active lifestyle, developing links and integrating into the community.
The teaching of the programme is based on the theory of the many dealings of Howard Gardner and on the taxonomy of Bloom. The a.s.p.i.r.e. educational resources are designed to be able to be integrated easily into teachers' working programmes, to allow them to complete existing lesson plans or create new ones specifically centred on Olympic themes.
The programme's symbol is a boxing kangaroo, a strong symbol in Australian culture, which embodies the positive aspects and virtues of sport.
To raise awareness of the a.s.p.i.r.e. programme to a large public, information is published in the press, on the internet and directly in the schools concerned. A monthly information bulletin is also published.
Results
Over 200 theme-based educational files have been created in the framework of this initiative.
6,500 schools and14,300 teachers have registered with the program.