Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show has launched a new initiative to connect with the next generation.
The show, now in its 173rd year, has created an education pack for primary schools.
It covers a variety of activities which link back to Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show in some way and, in broader terms, the heritage and culture of Cumbria and its traditions
Covering maths, English, art, history, geography and citizenship, and with a large number of suggestions for in-classroom activities, as well as ready-to-use resources, the pack builds on the outreach activity that the show has engaged in over the past few years.
It does everything from encouraging children to consider the emotions of a competitor to asking them to calculate the areas of different sizes of podium.
Teachers could use the transcript of a podcast with the Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show’s Bellman, and many times fell racing champion Tommy Sedgwick, as a comprehension exercise. They could just as easily allow children to learn about different cultures, studying those of countries that send athletes to the Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling competition at Grasmere each year.
The pack was launched at Grasmere Primary School, when committee representative Sharon Savasi, met headteacher Johanna Goode and pupils.
Show chairman John Hibbert said: “Our education pack further build our links with schools in the Grasmere area and wider Cumbria. It is important that we instil a love of Grasmere Sports, its tradition and its values within the younger generation, so our historic show can continue for many decades to come.
“While the pack invites children to reflect on the importance of Grasmere Sports to the local community, we would also ask parents and other adults to do the same.
“What we stage each year is more than just a show. It is a living representation of life in Cumbria in both the past and the present, with these elements coming together in a 21st century melting pot that allows us to blend the best of both worlds.
“By supporting traditional sports and rural pastimes and identities, the show is a means of retaining the strong values of yesteryear and encouraging a higher valuation of our unique rural culture.
“In this way, we believe attending Grasmere Sports offers enrichment and even a new perspective on how to approach our daily stresses and challenges.
“If we can convey this to children, and to the parents and grandparents who allow them to experience, in person, what they will be learning about through study, our show’s future will be all the stronger. A new generation of ambassadors will hopefully emerge.”
The pack is available at www.grasmeresports.com
This year’s show takes place on August 24.
