Disability Football @ Walker Activity Dome

Today was our first ever School Games Level 2 Disability Football competition which was delivered in partnership with Northumberland FA and Newcastle United Foundation.

A total of 6 special schools or schools with specialist units across Newcastle received a number of weeks of coaching with this competition a chance for them to demonstrate all the things they have learnt.

Trinity School managed to finish in 1st place and now qualify for the Level 3 competition on Friday 15th March where they will compete for the honour of County Champions against the best team from Sunderland, South Tyneside, Gateshead and North Tyneside.

Stephen Langley, PE Teacher form Trinity School said "the lads have loved it, they have had 3 hours of running around and have really enjoyed the competition we are really looking forward to the next competition at Centre for Sport on 15th March".

Nicola Hepworth, Girls & Disability Football Development Officer for Northumberland FA commented " we continue to work across our county in partnership with Newcastle United Foundation to provide quality football experiences for young people with a disability. Today's event is the start of a development programme of competitive football opportunities for schools with young people who have a disability".

Yr 3&4 Quicksticks Hockey

This evening was our Newcastle School Games, Level 2, Primary Quicksticks Hockey competition.

Quicksticks is an age specific introduction to hockey created by England Hockey which is based on 2 boys and 2 girls in a team. The game is played with a bigger lighter ball and with a range of small, medium and large sticks.

This evenings competition was keenly contested by 6 teams from Newcastle Schools, most of whom had not played a lot of hockey previously. Each school had an option of Level 1 support to help prepare the teams for the competition during PE by Ian Kendall one of our School Games Organisers.

In Gold medal position was St Oswald with Silver medal position awarded to Wingrove and Bronze place went to Ravenswood.

St Oswalds and Wingrove will now go forward to represent Newcastle Schools at the Tyne & Wear, Level 3 School Games on 15th March.

Level 3 Tyne & Wear Indoor Rowing Championships

Yesterday (12.2.2013) saw our fastest Indoor rowers from Yrs 7 - 11 representing Newcastle Schools at the Tyne and Wear Indoor Rowing Championships hosted and organised by Gateshead School Sport Partnership with support from British Rowing and Concept 2 at Gateshead International Stadium.

Each of our Secondary and Middle schools across Newcastle where offered the chance to attend a Level 2 Indoor Rowing competition as well as support to host a Level 1 intra school (Inter house) Competition. The Newcastle team was made up with representatives from the following schools:-

  

 

·                Kenton

·                Sacred Heart

·                Gosforth Central Middle

·                Heaton Manor

·                Gosforth Academy

·                Walbottle

·                St Mary’s

·                Benfield

·                Dame Allan’s

 

A number of individuals broke our City Records during the Level 2 competitions but yesterday saw a number of notable performances by our rowers. Matthew Brooks from Dame Allan’s broke not only the Newcastle Schools record but also smashed the County record for yr 10 boys on his way to a Gold medal. Sydney Martin from Kenton broke her own City Record for Yr 9 girls and last years County record on way to a Silver medal.

Another highlight of the competition was watching the yr 10 boys win the team relay event on way to a Gold Medal with the team made up of Matthew Brooks from Dame Allan’s, Aboubaka Konate from Benfield and Jake Bratley from Gosforth Academy (see below).

Team Manager and Newcastle School Games Organiser, Ian Kendall, commented:

“After some impressive results at the School Games Level 2 Indoor Rowing Final the pupils representing Newcastle Schools have stepped up to the mark and really delivered today and in the process have managed to secure 2 GOLD, 3 SILVER and 1 BRONZE medal in the process. Thank you to all the teachers who supported the day to make this happen and well done to everyone for representing Newcastle Schools to such a high standard in both behavior and performance!”

 

Primary School Sport Funding

Exclusive: Campbell hopeful of primary school sport investment ahead of Government announcement

Youth Sport Trust (YST) chair Baroness Sue Campbell claimed she is hopeful that there will be a big investment in primary school sport with Education Secretary Michael Gove set to make a major announcement on the issue later this month.
Gove's Department for Education (DfE), who assume responsibility for school sport in the UK, have often come under criticism from the physical education sector, particularly in their first Comprehensive Spending Review in October 2010 when they announced the entire £162 million funding for the School Sports Partnerships would be axed.

The move was met by such a fierce wave of protests from teachers, pupils and Olympic athletes that the Government had to partially backtrack on the decision and reinstall some of the funding for a period.

Following the success of London 2012, there have been renewed calls for more investment in school sport to help continue the legacy drive of the Games and with Gove's school sport announcement scheduled for next week, Campbell said she wants to see a boost for primary schools.

"Listening to the headteachers and school sport leaders here, there is a real recognition that we need to do something around primary school physical education," Campbell told insidethegames at the Youth Sport Trust 2013 Conference here.

"That doesn't mean to say that there isn't still work to be done in secondary schools because there is.

"But at secondary school level, there are some existing structures in place and tools such as the School Games which they can use.

"But in primary schools, everybody acknowledges that if we don't get it right, then we are not laying the foundations for health and we are not laying the foundations for sport for young children.

"So we would hope that the announcement will represent some significant investment in primary physical education."

Campbell, who is also UK Sport chair, admitted it would have been better to see the announcement come straight after London 2012 to help build on the momentum of the successful Olympics and Paralympics.

Education Secretary Michael Gove will make an announcement on school sport this month, although he has been widely criticised with a lack of commitment on the issue

"But in the end, if it is the right announcement, a good announcement and it offers the right kind of investment, then I think we can get on with it," she said.

"I think any impatience from schools over the announcement is them wanting to know that at the Government level, school sport does matter and that it hasn't been forgotten.

"It is just a desire to push on.

"So that it is the right announcement for school sport is far more important than the timing."

The YST chair also looked to play down any rift with Gove, who has come constant under attack at the conference in Telford for his lack of commitment to school sport.

"I think we do have to get away from personalising this too much and focusing on a particular individual," she said.

"This is a Government responsibility and that means the Department of Education, the Department of Health and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

It is not just the responsibility of one person and one Department; it is a responsibility of everyone in Government from the Prime Minister down.

"I think it is dangerous if it gets too personalised against an individual and that certainly isn't helpful for anyone.

"This issue is much too important than that.

"This can't be me against an individual or an individual against me because that is nonsense.

"We want the Government to work coherently with us for the good of young people in schools."

This article was taken from Inside the games and written by Tom Deggun, contact him at tom.degun@insidethegames.biz

School Games Level 2 High 5 Netball @ WAD

Newcastle Schools demonstrate

School Games 'Spirit of the Games' Values

Yesterday was our Level 2 Newcastle School Games High 5 Netball Competition at the newly refurbished Walker Activity Dome (formerly the Lightfoot Centre). The centre was a fitting venue because like the netball itself it was finished off to a very high standard.

Although there were 9 schools signed up to compete the following schools made it across to take part:-

·                Kingston Park

·                Wingrove

·                Central Newcastle

·                Ravenswood

·                Cragside

We had the invaluable support of Gemma Sandberg from England Netball who primarily delivers the ‘Back to Netball’ programme which introduces women back into organised Netball http://www.activenewcastle.co.uk/news/95/back-to-netball/ . We also had Nicola from the Tigers Netball Club who helped out with umpiring and promoting the club which runs from WAD every Thursday http://www.activenewcastle.co.uk/clubs/view/tigers-netball-club/

Impressive performance throughout by Central Newcastle saw them win every match and win the overall competition and win Gold Medal certificates, Silver Medal certificates  went to Ravenswood and both Schools will now go forward to represent Newcastle at the Level 3 event on 15^th March at ‘Centre for Sport’. Cragside finished in Bronze medal certificate position.

A special mention must go out to all schools who demonstrated a number of our School Games ‘Spirit of the Games’ values of passion, determination, self respect, honesty and team work. Each pupil represented their schools to the highest standard which we can all be proud of!

 

Leadership Academy Students Achieve Their First Goal

Earlier this academic year the Newcastle School Games Team were excited to launch their Leadership Academy for the first time.  The team established the academy to provide a bespoke package for its members and were committed to working with young people demonstrating a professional approach to their leadership activity, hence the inclusion of a mentoring aspect.

Students from across the city in Years 10-13 were encouraged to apply to be members of the academy and showcase the qualities and experience they would bring to the table; as well as source a reference from a member of staff at their school.

Successful candidates have been issued with their own personal logbooks which include a description of the School Games Values, a Code of Conduct, a description of the Mentoring Process, a page for some Personal Goal Setting, somewhere to log their hours throughout the year and a competition calendar.

The Leadership Academy provides young people with opportunities to officiate, coach and event manage at School Games events in our calendar.  Feedback is then provided to the individual and staff back at their school so that achievements can be celebrated accordingly.  In connection with this we've also established a Reward Scheme linked to the academy as we think it’s really important to acknowledge the positive impact our Leaders have on our younger children across the city.

Today’s blog has come about because on Friday we had cause to celebrate the achievements of a couple of our Leaders who attend Excelsior Academy; 3 students from the school have been the first to achieve the first milestone on the Reward Scheme and were presented with their Leadership Academy T-Shirts as a result.

These students have attended a number of our School Games events and proved to be more than competent in the way they organised the groups of young people they were working with.  They were punctual, polite and professional in their approach on each occasion and a credit to Excelsior School.  The staff at the school support their leaders and also support the School Games team by hosting events at their facility.

We very much look forward to working with them as the year continues and the opportunity to reward them further as they engage with the programme more and more.  Working with young people with their qualities is not only a pleasure but they bring additional positive outcomes to the events we organise.

The Newcastle School Games Team cant wait to have more members of the Leadership Academy wearing the t-shirts and sharing their experiences with their peers, family and staff.

School Games Level 3 League Table 2012-13

Newcastle move into Bronze Medal position

As we want to honour not just the winners but those who get involved in the School Games the most we've created two tables.

The first is the medal table on which you'll be able to see how the areas in Tyne & Wear - Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland - rank against one another in terms of medals won by their schools.

On the engagement table you can find out which schools have participated in the most School Games events.

Newcastle Schools are progressing up the Tyne and Wear School Games Medals Table and currently occupy Bronze position........

http://www.tynewearschoolgames.org/page.aspx?id=2884