THE sporting spirit of the London Olympics will bring the eleven primary schools of the Okehampton Learning Community closer together this July.

Rather than have each school hold its own separate sports day, more than 1,500 children from the eleven schools will participate in the 'Primary School Olympics', uniting the schools from Monday July 2 to Friday July 6 to celebrate the Games coming to Great Britain.

The idea was first proposed a year ago by OCRA's Stuart Lord and Mike Reynolds. Following the Olympic format, the week will have an opening and closing ceremony, with five days of sports in between. Each of the eleven schools has been practicing their Olympic dance and preparing for the fun and games.

Activities include more than 30 different sports, games from around the world, paralympic awareness sessions, dance, swimming, team building activities, music and art.

Stuart Lord, school sports co-ordinator and manager of OCRA, said: 'There has been a great response from anybody asked to be involved in these Olympic celebrations from sports clubs, leisure and fitness centres, instructors, performers, local businesses, Exeter City FC, Exeter Chiefs, volunteers and from grant giving bodies such as Okehampton United Charity, Okehampton Lions, Okehampton Rotary Club, West Devon Borough Council, and the Manor House Hotel.

'There are also 160 young sports leaders from Okehampton College supporting activities over the week. We are looking forward to a great week of sunshine and primary school sport, where children will come together to celebrate and to get a flavour of different sports and cultural activities.'

The main focus for the event will be around Okehampton College and Simmons Park, with other venues in the area also hosting activities. Each day will have a focus group of children, to allow organisers to tailor events to their age and abilities.

These activities also form part of Okehampton Sports and Fitness Festival 2012, which has great opportunities for children and adults to participate in over another 40 different sports. For more information on these events go to http://www.ocrasport.org.uk">www.ocrasport.org.uk