The Olympics 2012 project is an Olympics-inspired pilot scheme coordinated by the Open University Classical Studies Department in collaboration with The Iris Project

According to Ofsted, there are approximately 4, 000 schools across the UK serving communities in socio-economically deprived areas. These areas have the lowest levels of students continuing to university education (especially in the field of Classics). In addition, data from the National Obesity Observatory and the Department of Health reveal that there is an almost linear relationship between child obesity prevalence and socio-economic deprivation. “Back to School” aims to address these parallel issues through a series of Olympics-inspired workshops and outdoors events.

Our workshops last approximately one hour and are divided in two halves. The first half consists of a multimedia-enhanced interactive lesson, revolving around comparisons between the Ancient Olympics and the modern Games.

Four thematic blocks are addressed:

1. The athletes’ training
2. Locations
3. Athletic events
4. Honouring the victors

Outdoors activities will be conducted in late spring / early summer 2012. Students will actively explore the differences between ancient athletic events and their modern equivalents by participating in a series of sporting competitions. They will also have an opportunity to test the athletic events that they invented in the workshops earlier in the year.