Rio 2016 Organising Committee promotes Olympic and Paralympic values in city schools
From vegetable gardens to sports competitions and healthy cooking recipes, students and teachers are using their imagination
The Rio 2016 Education department is taking the Olympic and Paralympic values into schools (Rio 2016/Alexandre Loureiro)
The Rio 2016 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games is already hosting a marathon in the city. However, it is not a simple sports event: the Rio 2016 Values Marathon aims to promote the Olympic ideals – excellence, respect, friendship – as well as the Paralympic values – courage, determination, inspiration and equality – amongst students and teachers in 52 municipal schools. With themed challenges that run throughout the academic year, students have been set the mission of mobilising and integrating the school community in three initiatives, starting with ‘Fair play’, to be followed by ‘Solidarity School’ and ‘Mascots’.
The ‘Fair Play’ challenge celebrates the philosophy of athletes competing with an ethical and fair attitude towards everyone involved in the competition. Students and teachers are developing initiatives that encourage this approach, not only in sports but also in environmental, social and other areas.
Student in front of the ‘Map of fair play in school’ (Photo: Rio 2016)
At Guimarães Rosa City School, students created a suspended garden with plastic bottles, renovated the sports court with the help of parents and friends from the community, and raised awareness about respecting opponents via the practice of rugby. At the Ruben Berta Municipal School, students painted tyres in the colours of the Olympic rings and planted vegetables and herbs in them. They also organised a mixed racket sports tournament in which they acted as the referees and managed the various rounds.
At the Mário Casassanta Municipal School, they had a combined maths and cooking class in which they looked at the reuse of materials that would otherwise be discarded, such as banana skins, while calculating the proportion of the ingredients used. In another activity, students came together to clean the computer room and created a new reading space.
An Olympic rings-inspired vegetable garden created by students using old tyres (Photo:Rio 2016)
The ‘Fair Game’ initiative ends this month and the three highest-rated schools, as voted for by a jury, will receive invitations to August’s International Sailing Regatta, the first of the Rio 2016 test events. At the end of the year, the three best-ranked schools will claim the medals in the 2014 Values Marathon.
