Pupils at Oxgang School have been embracing the Olympic spirit in a series of sporting and cultural activities.

The school is taking part in the Get Set Network - the official London 2012 education programme for schools and colleges. The scheme is designed to get students thinking about the values of the Olympics, through various interactive learning resources.

Head teacher of Oxgang School, Mrs Sharon Wilson, said: “Since we came back in September, we’ve taken a full school approach to the Olympics. We decided that the Olympic values were the same as the school values.

“We already had a lot of sport involvement in the school. We wanted to see how useful it would be for the school to do this as a year-long project."

After being divided into teams, the pupils took part in various Olympic activities, such as the javelin and skipping - the idea being to encourage them to adopt Olympic values to help them improve upon their own strengths.

Mrs Wilson explained: “The children went to Grangemouth Sport Complex and took part in seven Olympic skills. They all got an initial score so each team is going to train to build on that. They took part to see their strengths and what to work on.

“We’ve booked the complex for June and the children will try and beat their original score. It’s all about really getting the Olympic values, such as striving for excellence through hard work – and they’ve all really worked hard.

“Their skill is what they’ve got to beat. They’re not competing with each other, they’re competing against themselves.

“Each primary seven pupil acts as a leader in their team. The teams are named after each continent, so we’ve got Team Europe, Team Asia and so on.

"What each team have done was come up with a national anthem for their continent and design a flag. We also got them to look to the values of that continent, the culture and all the different aspects that go with that.

“We also had Jammin Fitness come in and teach them some dancing and at the end, all the kids stood up and did a dance for their particular continent.”

And just like the real Olympics, the primary school even has its own logo and mascot!

Mrs Wilson said: “Because we are in Grangemouth and there’s the flame we changed the school logo to the Olympic Torch.

“We’ve also got the school mascot and he’s called Oxy Olympian! We had been talking about the London mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville, and I thought ‘we need a mascot’ so I bought Oxy as a surprise. The children were quite blown away by him.”

As well as the 21012 Olympics, Oxgang are also one of many schools involved in Falkirk’s Going for Gold scheme, which aims to inspire and motivate young people to take part in Olympic and Paralympic sports.

Mrs Wilson said: “A teacher will train in water polo, for instance, or tennis and they’ll put on after-school clubs to give the children a taster in the sport.

“The scheme also has the school linked with another country. One of our workers is from Taiwan – she is one of the project workers at Barnardo’s, which is linked to Oxgang support service – so the pupils will be learning about the culture of someone they all know.

"They will look at what that country is doing for the Olympics and how they have prepared for it. It will bring the community and the school together.”

So what project does Mrs Wilson have in mind next for Oxgang School?

She added: “We will be looking at the Commonwealth Games next! It’s all about taking something that’s current. A lot of the skills linked to what the children learn on these schemes can be carried on and they can learn how these skills can bring people together.”

To find out more about GetSet, or to register, click here.