Kazan link strengthens

As part of our commitment to offering students a world-class learning experience, UCLan recently welcomed a delegation from Kazan University, Russia, to our Preston campus.

Organised in conjunction with Dr Sue Minten (Sport Business Management), the visit followed last year's successful online lecture with Kazan, and saw four students and one lecturer join our undergraduates in a series of activities.

The group's first session saw them join our first year Physical Education students to learn various teaching methods for the delivery of primary school National Curriculum activities. Focus was predominantly geared towards the delivery of Basketball and target games.

The international students became involved with discussions around key concepts and key processes within the National Curriculum, as well as the understanding of the Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills obtained by pupils through this.

Later in the week the Kazan students visited a local primary school to support three of our second year students - Thomas Downward, Rebecca Neill and Brian Mabhen - in the delivery of Tag Rugby and Netball to the Key Stage 1 class as part of their placement module.

Megan Greaves observed the group to enhance her knowledge of teaching younger year groups, having been associated with older primary school children previously. At break-time the Russian students answered a number of sociocultural questions about their country, which put their English to the test. It gave Tom, Brian and Becky a well-deserved rest!

The Kazan students were impressed by the professionalism of our students and certainly the standards set by all three students to the classes was impressive.

After a trip to Preston North End’s Deepdale ground, the Russian students were given the opportunity to observe and take part in sessions at CrossFit Spectrum gym in Preston. Course Leaders Nick Passenger and John Metcalfe have developed close links with the gym to enhance and broaden the training horizons of our students.

The international links with Kazan are continuing to develop and plans to take a Sport Studies cohort to Russia in the next academic year continue to be looked at. Both our first year and second year students were extremely welcoming of our visitors and we look forward to working with them in the forthcoming months.