On your marks, Get Set, Glow!…Archives and Olympics Update
We recently launched our Border Olympians & Paralympians learning resource on Glow, the national schools intranet.
We’re delighted to report that uptake on this education outreach project’s been really positive. To date, fifteen schools Scottish Borders-wide – and counting – have picked up the learning resource, and around 350 pupils and their teachers are now happily up-and-running with it (front cover below).
The learning resource is an innovative fusion of archives and sports history, which showcases the stories of fifteen Scottish Borderers who’ve achieved excellence in their chosen sports by becoming Olympians or Paralympians.
Each individual’s story is now preserved in a unique record of the Borders’ fascinating Olympic heritage. And, we plan to update this every four years to continue the educational benefits for current and future generations. We hope that this legacy element to the project will bring lasting and positive change to a Borders-wide school audience.
To widen the range of learning and to maximise human-interest value, the resource also includes storyboards for nine Olympians with intriguing Borders’ connections. These provide links to the wider world. In addition, we chart the stories of three Borderers who went on to coach Olympic athletes. And, there are four inspirational local case studies. These cover athletes from the past and present (and more on this later) as well as a current leading track and field coach.
The project reflects the dynamic and vibrant nature of the archives sector in Scotland as a whole, with cross-community engagement and education outreach to the fore. And, it’s further testament to the potential for local, informal partnerships to make a real difference to the educational opportunities of children and young people across the Borders.
In relation to the previous point, it’s been a pleasure and a privilege for us to work in partnership with several talented individuals and groups in creating the learning resource. They’ve greatly assisted to make this project come alive. We’re most grateful to them all for their generosity of energy, time and creativity.
Henry Gray, our key partner on the project, deserves a special mention. Henry, a prominent local sports historian, kindly agreed to share with us a lifetime’s research on Border Olympians and Paralympians. It makes for fascinating reading and is clearly a labour of love! And, working with Henry is inspirational.
In addition, archival newspaper reports, that appear courtesy of The Southern Reporter and its associated newspapers (some now out of print), bring to life the Border Olympian’s and Paralympian’s stories. We are grateful for these kind permissions, as there are twenty-seven archive press cuttings in total and they contribute greatly to the educational offer of the project.
Newspapers bring past people and events to life with great immediacy and often in rich detail. And, the Hub’s extensive collection of over twenty-five publicly accessible local titles comes into play to achieve this in the learning resource. These stories leap out of the archives onto the page, just as many of the athletes that feature within its pages have memorably sprung from the starting blocks and onto the track.
Along the way, we also received generous help from Derek Robertson, who kindly gave us permission to adapt and edit ‘Hawick’s First Olympian’ (from his illuminating and poignant book All These Fine Fellows, Hawick and District and the Great War).
Many people kindly helped us to research the story of Scotland’s most revered Olympian, Eric Liddell: The Eric Liddell Centre (a registered charity in Edinburgh), Jim Gibson (local photographer) and residents of Paxton, the birthplace of Eric Liddell’s mother.
A gentleman from Hawick, with a lifelong love of athletics, generously shared his memories of being a spectator at the London Olympics 1948, whilst on national service there.
The Polish national athletics coach, Piotrek Haczek, kindly shared his knowledge on Branislow Malinowski (one of Poland’s most famous Olympians and a national hero there). Bransilow’s mother hails from Kelso, where she met her future husband, a Polish infantryman who was based at Springwood Park on the outskirts of the town during World War Two. And, the Kelso Connections Group generously agreed to let us use research from their book, We’re from Kelso, to tell Sir Matthew Pinsent’s Olympic story (Matthew went to primary school in Kelso and retains close links with the town to this day).
People from Galashiels helpfully shared their memories of Douglas Welsh from his swimming halcyon days (Doug was Gala’s first Olympian at the Helsinki Games in 1952 and also won selection for Melbourne 1956).
Some of our Olympians made generous direct contributions to the resource. For example, Trish Dale (Euan’s Mum) kindly provided a photograph of Euan when we were struggling to source one. Euan Dale swam with distinction for Scotland in the 2006 Commonwealth Games (a double medallist) and followed this up with an Olympic appearance for Team GB at Beijing in 2008.
And, Guy Learmonth, currently the fastest teenager in Europe at 800metres and an Olympic prospect, appears in the resource courtesy of a profile from the British Heart Foundation and Loughborough College’s Flames: Lighting the Way programme, which Guy is a youth ambassador for. Part of his remit involves working with youngsters in Scottish Borders Council schools to promote Olympic values and healthy living, because, in Guy’s words, he wants “to be involved in educating and enthusing young people through the positive values of sport.”
This last point is also one of the central aims of the Hub’s learning resource.
As a point of interest, Guy Learmonth competed at the British Universities Championships over the weekend, which doubled-up as a trial run for the new Olympic Stadium in the lead-in to the London2012 Games. He became one of the first athletes ever in action there in a competitive situation. And, he won the 800metres title, in doing so completing a rare double of British Universities’ indoor and outdoor 800 metres champion in the same year. We’d like to pass on our hearty congratulations to Guy and his co-coach Henry Gray!
In the very near future, we plan to follow up the successful launch of our Border Olympians and Paralympians resource for schools with a booklet of lesson plans and ideas tailored to Curriculum for Excellence and aimed at ages 4-11.
Watch this space!
Posted by: Keith
