A HUGE Olympic-themed sports day involving hundreds of students and teachers is to be hosted by a Kendal school.

Coinciding with the Olympic Torch passing through South Lakeland on June 22, classes will be cancelled at The Queen Katherine School when 750 staff and pupils take part in activities.

After catching a rare glimpse of the torch, children will go to school later than usual before taking part in sport, enterprising and theatrical challenges.

Designed to inspire and engage youngsters of all abilities, the innovative event will see pupils from different year groups work together to produce displays, dances and art with prizes up for grabs.

Mandy Mason, work-related learning and events co-ordinator, said the whole school would be involved in the one-off spectacle.

“We are trying to give the students a real variety of options,” she said. “We have children who are sporty and those that want to do more creative and more enterprising challenges.

“They’re going to have fun; it’s going to be an unusual school day. We want students to embrace the Olympic theme and there will be problem-solving, teamwork and communication activities – it’s educating them ‘outside the box’.”

The Army will be in school to set children sporting challenges, while other highlights include an Olympic tea cooked by students with help from local chefs, dress, culture and sculpture workshops, dance events, jewellery and soap-making and more. Art, geography and citizenship departments will host events, while students will be introduced to new languages and ways of communicating.

A team of ‘roving reporters’ will document the day on film.

Miss Mason hopes the event will give pupils a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the Olympics right on their doorstep.

“We won’t see the Olympics in this country again in our lifetime and we hope students will think back and remember how they celebrated,” she said.

Head teacher Stephen Wilkinson said the Olympic Torch’s arrival in the South Lakes would be ‘very special’.

“It is a tremendously important occasion and one that the governors, staff, parents and students want to mark in a very memorable way,” he said.

“We have suspended our normal curriculum in favour of an Olympic-themed day related not only to sport, but also to the cultural and international dimension of the Olympic Games.”