Pupils at a beacon school for sport today told of their excitement at the chance of getting free Olympic tickets and urged other schools to sign up before Friday's deadline.
GCSE physical education students at Leytonstone Business and Enterprise Specialist School took a break from basketball to remind other young Londoners not to miss out on the 125,000-ticket giveaway, funded by the Mayor.
The school, near the Olympic Park, also hosted Airmiles inventor Sir Keith Mills, vice-chairman of the Locog Olympic organising committee and an original architect of the London 2012 bid.
Sixty nine per cent of London schools - a total of 2,170 - have registered for the Olympic education programme which qualifies them for free tickets. But only 41 per cent of schools in Kensington and Chelsea have signed up, and demand in Ealing, Croydon and Lambeth is also sluggish.
Unwanted tickets will be reallocated to boroughs where there has been higher demand. The 900-pupil Leytonstone school has blazed a trail for incorporating Olympic values into the curriculum and stands to get 100 free tickets.
The "Get Set" teaching materials provided by Locog have been used to stimulate projects on healthy eating, playing more sport and raising funds for a new playground and dance studio.
Today the school heard it may be eligible for funds to improve sports facilities from the "Sported" charity founded by Sir Keith. He said: "There are 60 million people and only 10 million tickets.
"But we want to get as many communities as possible involved in the Games whether that is in the workplace or through the torch relay or schools. Schools can germinate that passion for the Games and it is the generation at school right now who will have the responsibility for passing on in future what the Games were about."
