We are delighted to have received our third School Games Gold Mark in a row. The School Games Mark is a government-led awards scheme launched in 2012 to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community. Participating in this process allows schools to evaluate their PE provision and assists them in developing an action plan for future progress.
What are the key criteria?
The criteria of the School Games Mark aligns directly with the School Games outcomes. Schools will need to demonstrate how they are/have:
> Maintaining and growing your school’s engagement in the School Games – we entered two teams whenever possible, allowing as many of our children to experience competitive sport.
> Delivering and engaging in competitions that has clear intent and creates positive experiences based on the motivation, competence and confidence of your young people – our teams competed in and won competitions in the following sports: Netball, Tag Rugby, Basketball, Sportshall Athletics, Dodgeball, Boys Football & Girls Football. Most notably become county champions in Tag Rugby and u11 Boys Football.
> Supporting the personal development of targeted young people through youth engagement and leadership – We continue to train up a new cohort of Playground Stars every year, ensuring they enhance the sporting opportunities for all younger children in the school.
> Schools should be working to ensure there are equal opportunities for all young people regardless of their gender – all School Games competitions provide equal opportunities for girls and boys & our girls football club has continued to grow.
> Schools should understand the concept of physical literacy working to develop their practice in this aspect – children are regularly set personal challenges as part of our PE curriculum, over 40% of our children entered the Primary Schools Half Marathon and we had excellent engagement in our Path to Paris challenge in the Summer Term.
We look forward to continuing to improve our sports provision in this school year, where we will aiming to achieve the Platinum award.