Mr Kidman's Classroom
Revise the key ideas
Values through sport
- Team spirit and fair play — Team spirit means supporting teammates and working towards shared goals: a substitute encouraging a struggling player is an example. Fair play involves honest competition and respect for the rules and their purpose, such as admitting that the ball touched your racket. Winning does not excuse treating opponents unfairly.
- Citizenship and tolerance — Citizenship involves acting responsibly within a community, such as volunteering at a club or helping maintain shared facilities. Tolerance and respect mean accepting others' differences and treating players and officials with dignity. A team welcoming a new member from another background shows these values; merely putting people together does not guarantee respect.
- Inclusion national pride and excellence — Inclusion means creating equal opportunities for different groups to participate; adapting a session can make access fairer. National pride can unite supporters behind their country without hostility towards opponents. Excellence means striving to do your best, so a beginner improving a personal performance can show it without winning a medal.
Olympic and Paralympic movement
- Meaning of the Creed — The Olympic Creed emphasises taking part, making an honest effort and competing well rather than valuing victory above everything. It links sporting struggle with effort in life. A runner who completes a difficult event fairly can embody its message despite finishing last. This ideal does not mean athletes should stop trying to win.
- Symbols and movement — The five interlocking Olympic rings represent the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes worldwide. A particular ring colour is not officially assigned to a particular continent. The Paralympic symbol has three Agitos, suggesting movement and athletes coming together. The two movements have distinct symbols; the Paralympics are elite competition, not simply rehabilitation.
- Olympic values — The Olympic values are excellence, friendship and respect. Excellence involves personal progress and doing one's best; friendship encourages understanding across countries; respect covers self, others, rules and the environment. Competitors helping each other prepare while competing honestly can show friendship and respect together.
- Paralympic values — The Paralympic values are courage, determination, inspiration and equality. Courage involves facing challenges; determination involves sustained commitment; performances can inspire others to be active; equality challenges discriminatory attitudes and barriers. Discuss athletes' skills and achievements respectfully rather than assuming disability makes every everyday action inspirational.
- Applying the values — A fictional wheelchair racer who persists with training shows determination, while an accessible event that welcomes spectators with varied needs supports equality. Congratulating an opponent illustrates respect. Name the action and explain its connection to the value; simply naming an athlete or a medal does not demonstrate which value is involved.
Initiatives and campaigns
- National examples — Sport England's This Girl Can campaign challenges fear of judgement and helps women and girls see activity as something for them. Kick It Out uses education and reporting to challenge discrimination in football. These support inclusion and respect through different mechanisms: confidence and representation in one case, and challenging discriminatory behaviour in the other.
- Local and regional action — The London Youth Games provides regional opportunities through School Games and inclusive sport programmes; its 2026 inclusive basketball rules are a dated example. Local Free Parks Tennis sessions put a national LTA programme into practice at individual venues. Both can promote inclusion through actual opportunities to play. A fictional leisure centre's fair-play day is a teaching example only; do not confuse it with a verified local event.
- Evaluating an initiative — Identify the target group, value, action and intended effect. Measure more than publicity: ask whether people joined, returned, felt included and could report problems safely. Rising discrimination reports can reflect greater willingness to report as well as more incidents. Advertising values while tolerating abuse undermines a campaign's purpose.
Etiquette and behaviour
- Etiquette and rules — Etiquette is the expected polite behaviour associated with a sport, often beyond its written rules. Remaining quiet as a tennis player serves allows concentration; acknowledging an opponent after a match shows respect. A formal rule has an official consequence, while an etiquette breach may bring disapproval even when it is not a specific playing offence.
- Sportsmanship and gamesmanship — Sportsmanship follows both the rules and the spirit of fair competition, such as checking on an injured opponent. Gamesmanship seeks an unfair psychological or tactical advantage by exploiting or bending rules, such as deliberately wasting time. Some gamesmanship also breaks a rule and can be penalised; it is not automatically legal because of its label.
- Why performers' conduct matters — Respectful behaviour protects safety, trust and enjoyment. Accepting a decision without intimidation lets officials work safely and gives young players a positive example. Reckless play or abusive comments can cause injury, deter officials and drive participants away. Competitive intensity and fair behaviour can coexist.
- Spectators' responsibilities — Spectators should follow venue instructions, keep exits clear, avoid throwing objects and refrain from discriminatory or threatening abuse. Quiet may be appropriate during a golf stroke, while cheering between attempts can support players. Standing in a prohibited area or invading the playing space endangers others and can disrupt competition.
Performance enhancing drugs
- Reasons for taking PEDs — Some performers seek an unfair advantage through increased strength, endurance, faster recovery or the ability to train harder. Pressure to win, retain selection, earn prize money or attract sponsors can contribute. A belief that rivals are doping can also influence decisions. Explaining these motives does not justify cheating.
PEDs means performance-enhancing drugs. In this clean-sport discussion, the concern is prohibited use to gain an advantage.
- Reasons to avoid PEDs — Banned performance enhancement breaches fair competition and can damage health, relationships and reputation. Effects depend on the substance: misuse of anabolic agents can harm hormonal and cardiovascular health, for example. Athletes may lose results, funding and careers. Detailed drug classes or dosing are not required for this topic; focus on reasons, consequences and prevention.
- WADA and clean sport — The World Anti-Doping Agency develops and monitors the World Anti-Doping Code, coordinates standards and maintains the Prohibited List. National anti-doping organisations such as UK Anti-Doping and other testing bodies implement programmes. WADA does not personally carry out every test or decide every case. Shared standards help sports and countries act consistently.
Working together for clean sport. Original illustration. Open full-size diagram - Whereabouts — Whereabouts information lets testing organisations locate selected athletes for unannounced out-of-competition tests. Registered Testing Pool athletes provide location and activity information plus a daily 60-minute slot. They can be tested outside that slot too. Requirements differ by pool; not every recreational player must submit this information.
- Whereabouts failures — For Registered Testing Pool athletes, a combination of three missed tests or filing failures within a rolling 12 months can constitute an anti-doping rule violation. One missed appointment is not automatically proof of taking a banned substance. Athletes must keep information accurate even while injured or travelling; the system reduces opportunities to avoid testing.
- Testing methods — Trained personnel can collect urine or blood at competitions or without advance notice elsewhere. Identity checks, sealed samples and documented handling protect reliability. Accredited laboratory analysis can detect prohibited substances or markers; biological passports track patterns over time to help identify possible doping. A result needs the proper review process rather than a public assumption of guilt.
- Sanctions and fairness — Possible consequences include disqualification, loss of medals or prizes and a ban; fines may apply under relevant rules. Length and severity depend on the violation and applicable process, so there is no single penalty for every case. Deterrence works by making cheating costly, while fair procedures and appeals protect athletes' rights.
- Education and prevention — Education helps athletes understand responsibilities, check medicines through official services, recognise supplement contamination risks and resist pressure. Coaches, peers, role models and family can reinforce clean-sport choices. UKAD education is a named example. Athletes remain responsible for substances in their bodies, so a supplement advertisement is not proof of safety or permission.
- Impact on the sport — Doping can deprive clean athletes of recognition and income, reduce trust in results and deter sponsors or participants. Repeated scandals can make parents question the sport's values. Effective testing and education support confidence, although testing costs money and cannot guarantee that every violation is detected. Explain consequences for athletes, audiences and organisations separately.
