National Skipping Day, Friday 23 March 2007

Thank you for expressing an interest in this event. For those who took part in 2005, the 2007 event is intended to be exactly the same. At its simplest level this is an afternoon where we hope as many children as possible with take part in skipping activities. Beyond that, we hope that your school will contribute to the national challenge of achieving "12 million skips in 15 minutes". The following offers some suggestions about the organisation of the event and attempts to respond to several queries we have received about the afternoon. We hope to have 120 schools taking part and, so far, have received interest from around 20 schools from areas as geographically diverse as Yorkshire, Norfolk, West Midlands, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, and Oxfordshire as well as throughout London and the south-east.

Preparing children for the event:

The challenge for children is to complete 1000 skips within a 15 minute period during the afternoon. There is no doubt that children will need to practice for this

(and the sooner the better!). In order to participate, children will need to be able to skip in a sustained double-bounce step. Once they can manage this the number of skips they can complete is simply a question of stamina, concentration and determination. Children are asked to find out how many skips they can manage in one skip and develop an idea of how they might approach the task of completing the 1000 skips. It is suggested that they try this by skipping in several attempts

(with rest periods in between), with each attempt being in units of 100, 200, 250 or 500 skips. In previous years, a surprising number of older children did attempt the 1000 skips in one go, but this certainly isn’t necessary. To help children prepare for this it is suggested that there are given a score sheet something like this:

The idea is to give children 4 or 5 copies of this score sheet so that they can rehearse for the event by making an informed choice as to whether they can manage 100, 200 or more skips at each attempt. A child of average fitness might complete the following score sheet.

Double-bounce skipping is usually done at a speed of around 65-70 skips per minute, so the 1000 skips should take between 14 and 15 minutes, although, with rest periods between each attempt, it should cover a period of about 30 minutes in all.

Organising the afternoon:

It is important to establish how many children will take part in the event and how many skipping ropes are available during the afternoon. Most of the schools taking part have hosted a "Skipping Workshop" event and there are hopefully many children with their own skipping rope. We hope children will not only use their own ropes but be prepared to share it with others. In addition we are aware that most schools have a stock of ropes for use.  If you do need more ropes, please contact us. Once you know how many children are taking part and how many ropes you have access to, a timetable for the afternoon can be drawn up. For example, if you have 80 children and access to 80 ropes, then you might have a simultaneous skip and complete the event in 30 minutes. On the other hand, if you have 200 children and only 50 ropes then clearly a careful timetable will need to be drawn up, especially if the weather precludes the use of the playground.

Involving non-skippers:

We hope that ( in the spirit of inclusion!) all children will get a chance to participate. In my experience, most children in years 3 to 6 can either manage a double-bounce skip already or can learn fairly quickly how to do it. However, in every school there are likely to be a small number who cannot yet manage this. The usual problem for this group is turning the rope in a circular arc and timing their jump in co-ordination with the turning rope. This group can take part if two helpers can be found to turn the rope for them; obviously this is very labour intensive, but could be managed if sufficient parents can be involved as helpers. Children being helped in this way clearly could not aspire to 1000 skips, but could manage at least 100 skips and make a significant contribution to the school's overall total.

Promoting the event:

We would like as many schools as possible to participate in the National Skipping Day, so, if you know of any local schools wishing to take part please pass on our details to any interested school. I am aware that some schools have the facility to send e mails to schools in the area. If you are prepared to do this, please let me know and I will e mail a flier promoting the event to you. We will be issuing a press release shortly and hope this will attract publicity for the event and we would ask schools to mention the National Skipping Day to your local press. Last year’s event was covered by ‘The Times’ and the ‘Daily Telegraph’ and extensively by regional newspapers.

Communicating information to "Skipping Workshops":

We would like to keep track of schools taking part in the event and would ask you to pass on the following information to us between now and March 23rd:

The approximate number of children expected to take part

The estimated total number of skips your school expects to achieve

Registration forms for this can be found on our website.

This data can be sent by phone, fax or e mail ( details above) or by FREEPOST:

"Skipping Workshops" FREEPOST SEA 13049, Epsom KT19 0BR.

We hope the enclosed information is useful; if there are any queries about the event, please feel free to contact me,

Harold Galley

Managing Director of Skipping Workshops