News

Schools within Redditch and North Worcestershire School Sport Partnerships had the opportunity on Friday 25th June to compete in a variety of activities as part of their annual Partnership Games. The Games launched a fantastic array of activities which are all linked to National School Sport Week (NSSW). NSSW is a government initiative managed by the Youth Sport Trust and supported by Lloyds TSB, and runs from Monday 28 June-2nd July.



The Games are a true reflection of partnership working across the two areas of the county with the School Sport Partnerships, Bromsgrove District Council Sports Development and the Redditch Borough Council Action Sport Development team coming together and linking local clubs and coaches to support the wide variety of activities on offer.



This event which was hosted by the Abbey Stadium, Redditch, saw 800 pupils aged 9-16 take part in a variety of competitions and taster festivals in Boccia, Dodgeball, Futsal, Rowing, Athletics and Ultimate Frisbee- to name but a few. The following schools were winners:

Athletics Yr 5/6 Girls- Alvechurch Middle
Athletics Yr 5/6 Boys- Parkside Middle
Athletics Yr 9/10 Boys and Girls- South Bromsgrove High School
Dodgeball Yr 5/6 Aston Fields Middle
Individual Challenge Yr 5/6 Alvechurch Middle
Ultimate Frisbee Yr 7/8 St Johns Middle
Rowing Yrs 7/8 Girls Alvechurch Middle
Rowing Yr 7/8 Boys Woodrush Secondary
Rowing Yrs 9/10 Boys Trinity High
Rowing Yrs 9/10 Girls Woodrush Secondary
Girls Futsal Yrs 7/8 Ipsley Middle
Boys Futsal Yrs 7/8 St Johns
Girls Futsal Yr 9/10 South Bromsgrove
Boys Futsal Yr 9/10 North Bromsgrove High
Boccia & New Age Curling Parkside Middle



The Games were also fortunate enough to have Lloyds TSB heroes…Beth Crumpton (National MTB series champion in Cycling),Lizzie Powell (Fencing: 1st in the national Under 15 girls’ epee ), and Andrew Karr (Athletics- winning the Mencap national athletics championships 2009 with gold 1500m) who supported the young people in fencing, athletics and various other competitions- getting involved in all the sports that were taking place!

Alongside the event a strong leadership programme also ran- ensuring our students got the opportunity to enhance their leadership skills through supporting the activities; be that through administration, as a coach or supporting pupils on the day itself. High quality leaders were provided by St Johns Middle, Kingsley College, Woodrush High School and also Arrow Vale Specialist Sports College.



The event was run in partnership with Lloyds TSB who are the national sponsors for NSSW. The Games saw staff from local Lloyds TSB branches in Redditch and Bromsgrove get involved in the administration and delivery side of the event.
The Games also welcomed visits from Karen Lumley (MP for Redditch), Councillor Peter Anderson (Redditch) and the Mayor Kath Banks.



Vicci Webley Senior Competition Manager for Herefordshire & Worcestershire said ‘the Games were a true example of high quality partnership working for the benefit of our young people. Our thanks go to all those involved in making the event a success and we hope that all the pupils involved enjoyed representing their school and playing competitive sport’.

The purpose of National School Sport Week:
• Celebrate all that has been achieved in PE and School Sport over the last year. This includes Young Peoples participation, Young Peoples achievements and talent in PE & Sport and the contribution made by young leaders and volunteers and all those enabling Young People to achieve their potential.
• Launch new initiatives and developments in PE and School Sport.
• Profile all the amazing things that are happening in PE and School Sport nationally and encourage all school to raise the profile of PE & School Sport at a local level.

During May, the Redditch Middle Schools got their Kwik Cricket Tournaments underway.

There were 4 tournaments that took place at Redditch Cricket Club and were organised by Action Sport.

The first of these was the Year 6 Tournament which was entered by all middle schools in Redditch as well as Coppice and Meadow Green Primary Schools. The teams were put into 2 groups with the winners of each group playing a final to determine the overall winner. The winner of the Year 6 Tournament was St Bede’s Middle School.



On the same afternoon a Year 7/8 Girls Competition took place. This competition turned out to be very close but was eventually won by Woodfield Middle School. Congratulations to the girls on winning such a closely contested tournament.

During the following week, the Year 6 Girls Tournament took place and was won by Woodfield Middle School.


On the final day of the last half term it was the turn of the Year 5 Mixed Kwik Cricket Teams. Again, the teams were put into 2 groups with a final being played between the winning teams from each group. The winners were Birchensale Middle School.

The winners of the Year 5 & 6 competitions will now go on to represent Redditch in the county competitions. Good Luck to everyone!

Congratulations to all who took part in all of the tournaments and thank you to all who helped to organise and run the events.

Over the next couple of weeks, the Identification is taking place for the 2010-11 Multi-Skills Academy.

Year 4 pupils from first schools across the district will be selected by their teachers to attend the identification days.

At the events, pupils will be put through their paces in a range of multi-skill activities and those who perform the best will be invited to attend the Multi-Skills Academy at Arrow Vale High School over the 2010-11 Academic Year.

The first of these events has already taken place for the Kingsley family of schools. Pupils from Webheath, Astwood Bank, Feckenham, Vaynor and Harry Taylor First Schools travelled to Kingsley College where they took part in activities organised and led by our SSCO’s, and young leaders from Pitcheroak Special School.

Well done to all who took part, and good luck to anyone who will be attending one of these events in the coming weeks.

The Fieldfare Kielder Challenge is an inclusive national outdoor competition, which has been running for over 20 years. The Challenge is based on outdoor problem solving games, designed to test the skills of a team to communicate, plan, solve and evaluate their performance. The games aim to challenge skills in teams of 8 young people aged 13-16 (4 with and 4 without disabilities). All team members play an active role in solving the challenges and the inclusion of all should be a key goal of the team. There are opportunities for the team to pit themselves against the Challenge games within the school or group environment, out in the countryside and, ultimately in regional competition heats and even a national final.

This is the third year Redditch School Sport Partnership have entered this competition. This year we entered 2 teams, one was made up of 4 pupils from Pitcheroak Special School and 4 pupils from Arrow Vale High School, the other team was from Woodrush High School.



The teams had to take part in 5 challenges throughout the day and were scored according to their problem solving and team working skills. Both teams did fantastically well on the challenges and really enjoyed the day-The weather was even on our side!



The Arrow Vale/Pitcheroak team finished in joint 3rd place, and the Woodrush team finished in joint 1st place. The organisers are currently going back over the scores from each category in each challenge to work out who was the overall winner.

Whatever the final outcome, both teams should be very proud

Ridgeway Middle School was the venue for the 2010 Year 5 Extended Football Tournament.

100 boys from Middle and Primary Schools in the Redditch School Sport Partnership took part in the event. The afternoon was organised by SSCO’s in order to provide an opportunity for pupils who have been unable to represent their school in football so far this year, to do so.

Extended provision in the Redditch School Sport Partnership is providing more opportunities than ever for pupils to compete in School Sport.

This years Mini Tennis Red competition for children in year 3&4 took place in May. Teams were entered from Meadow Green Primary, Coppice Primary, Tardebigge First School and Batchley First School.

The competition was organised by a Redditch School Sport Partnership SSCO, whilst matches were overseen by staff from Redditch SSP, Action Sport, and young leaders from Kingsley College.

Two separate competitions were held, and the winners of these were Coppice Primary and Tardebigge First School.

Coppice Primary School will now progress on behalf of Redditch to a county round organised by the LTA.

Redditch School Sport Partnership have recently updated their list of Clubmark accredited clubs. This list is based on those who are based in or around the Redditch area and have either registered with the County Sport Partnership, or are found on the Clubmark website.

This list of clubs includes those who have achieved Clubmark status, or who are currently working towards achieving the accreditation.

If your club is based in or around the Redditch area and has Clubmark status, or is currently working towards it and you would like to be included on this list please don't hesitate to contact us.

Please click on the link below to view the list.

Redditch Clubmark Club List

Many first schools in Redditch have been preparing for the District Cross Country Finals which took place in April.

A finals event took place in each family of schools for pupils in Year 4. In the Woodrush family, the event was also entered by pupils in Years 3 and 5.



These events resulted in over 750 pupils taking part in a Cross Country competition on Friday 23rd April alone. Many schools have had qualifying events in order to select for the finals meaning many more pupils had been given the opportunity to take part in Cross Country for their schools.

A fantastic start to the summer term!

The new term has offered some new competition opportunities for young people in Redditch.

Two competitions took place at Arrow Vale High School featuring netball and futsal. These competitions were an opportunity for pupils in Years 9 & 10 from High Schools in the Redditch and North Worcestershire School Sport Partnerships to represent their schools in these sports.

Teams from Arrow Vale, St Augustines, Waseley Hills and South Bromsgrove competed in the events.

The events took place thanks to organisation by the Competition Manager for the two partnerships, and the Arrow Vale High School PE Department.

During March, Redditch School Sport Partnership organised a Golf Leaders Course for young leaders from the local high schools.

9 leaders attended the course at Redditch Rugby Club which was run by the Golf Foundation. The course was very practical based and gave lots of ideas to take away for activities based around Golf .

The leaders can now support the Golf programmes which are going on in the district as part of the

On Saturday 27th March 2010, the first event of this years Redditch Lads and Dads project took place at Arrow Vale Sports College.

The Redditch School Sport Partnership works together with the Early Years team at Worcestershire County Council and Early Years settings across Redditch to run the inaugural programme.

The Aims of the Lads and Dads project are:

To promote active physical development in young boys

To encourage more men to take an active part in their child’s learning



To increase parents awareness of learning through practical activities



To improve and promote reading and communication skills in young boys



To encourage the development of a mutually supportive partnership between home and the setting



This year the event was attended by 38 lads and their dads, from 9 Early Years settings across Redditch .

The lads came from the following Early Years settings: 


Noahs Ark Nursery

Oak Hill Nursery

Holyoakes Field

Woodrow First School

Abbeywood First School

St Thomas Moore First School

St Lukes First School

Matchborough First School
Webheath First School




Once the Lads and Dads arrived, they were given a brief introduction to the morning. It was then time to get started with the games and activities! There were 10 different stations for them all to have a go at including a penalty kick, an obstacle course and target throwing. Leaders from the Redditch Leadership Academy ran the morning including a high energy warm up, which was followed by leading the groups around each of the activities.








After the activities, the lads and dads enjoyed a well earned drink and a rest, followed by the chance to listen to a storyteller.



Next on the list of things to do were parachute games for the lads. With everybody gathered around the parachute, the leaders played lots of games and got the children joining in and having fun.



Meanwhile, the dads were hearing all about the benefits of taking part in activities and reading with their children. They were given lots of useful information to take away and enable them to be able to carry on with similar activities at home.

Staff were also available from Redditch Library service to give advice and information on the local facilities

At the end of the morning the lads were given a certificate for attending, and a bag with lots of equipment to enable them to carry on with some of the activities at home. The equipment bag included a bat and ball, a skipping rope, chalk and a frisbee.

There are two other events which will take place as part of this project during 2010, a Forest Schools event in May, and the Cup Final event, similar to the Kick off, which will take place in June.



Redditch School Sport Partnership would like to say thank you to everyone who attended and supported this event to make it such a success!

The most recent training session for the Redditch Year 5 & 6 multi-skills academy took place on Monday 22nd March at Arrow Vale High School.
The pupils, who all attend middle or primary schools in the Redditch School Sports Partnership have been working on their multi-skills in previous sessions.
They have looked at their Balance, Co-ordination and Agility, and tracked how they have been improving.

For this session, the organisers wanted to give the pupils an opportunity to try some sports that they may not have tried before. External coaches came in and ran sessions in Badminton and Squash.



As well as being given specialist coaching, the pupils were supported in the activities by leaders from the Redditch Leadership Academy.



The next session is due to take place in May and will provide opportunities to try some other sports.
By the end of this academic year, the aim is to ensure all members of the Redditch multi-skills academy are members of local sports clubs.

In early May, SSCO’s will be identifying pupils from first schools who will be invited to be a member of the Academy over the next academic year.

This years Playground to Podium Identification day for the district took place in March.


Playground to Podium is a national strategy for the identification, development and support of talented young disabled athletes.

Pupils from schools across the district were invited to the event which took place at the Abbey Stadium and was organised by the SSCO from Pitcheroak Special School.
Over 70 pupils attended on the day. The schools who were being represented were Arrow Vale High School, Kingsley College, Birchensale Middle School, Walkwood Middle School and Ipsley Middle School
.

The pupils took part in a wide range of activities looking at their basic skills to include balance, agility and co-ordination. The stations were led by young leaders from Birchensale and Woodfield Middle Schools. The young people also had the opportunity to receive some coaching from Chris Hargreaves, a rugby inclusion coach from Worcester Warriors.



The pupils were assessed on each station and those who were selected in a number of areas have been identified to progress to the next stage of the programme.

The next stage of the programme will be County Assessment Centres where others identified in the same way from across the county will all attend a centralised event for a more formal assessment and high quality coaching in specific sports.

This scheme has had high levels of success in the past with 3 pupils who have been identified through the programme in Redditch in the last 2 years going on the compete and win medals at the UK School Games.

This years gymnastics festival took place in March at Abbey Stadium and was attended by 90 Year 2 children.

The first schools who attended were Abbeywood, St Georges, Tardebigge, Webheath Feckenham, Holyoakes Field, Woodrow, and Coppice Primary School.

Once everyone had arrived, the children were led in a high energy warm up by Action Sport coach Jenny Bayliss. Staff couldn’t resist this and were on their feet getting involved!



Once they were warm, the pupils rotated around three different work areas, Vault, Floor Exercises and Body Management. They were led through these stations by young leaders from Ridgeway Middle School.



The final part of the afternoon was an opportunity for the pupils to perform and show each other how well they had been getting on. Every child demonstrated in one of the 3 areas as part of their group.



Each pupil who attended the festival was given a certificate for participating, as well as an English Gymnastics badge to show them how well they had done!

One of the new events on this years Redditch School Sport Partnership Calendar is the Middle and High School Dodgeball Tournament.

A Year 9 Tournament took place in February at Woodfield Middle School. The tournament was entered by Arrow Vale High School, St Augustines High School, Trinity High School, Kingsley College and Pitcheroak Special School. This competition was fantastically supported by leaders from NEW College. The competition was tough and the in the end the result was a tie between St Augustines and Kingsley College!

The Year 8 competition was taking place on the same afternoon at Birchensale Middle School. This was attended by Birchensale Middle School, Woodfield Middle School, St Bede’s Middle School, Ipsley Middle School, Walkwood Middle School, Woodrush High School and Pitcheroak Special School. There were some fantastic games throughout the afternoon and the tournament was eventually won by Woodfield Middle School.



For the pupils taking part in both of these tournaments, it was the first time they had represented their school in sport, and with well over 100 pupils competing, it was a great success. All pupils thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the competition and the support they showed to the other teams was highly noted.



Huge thanks go to Woodfield and Birchensale Middle Schools for providing venues and staff, which enabled these two tournaments to go ahead

Redditch School Sport Partnership is looking forward to seeing this event again in the future!

In February, Redditch School Sport Partnership held the Year 4 Basketball Tournament. This year due to refurbishments taking place at Abbey Stadium, the event was held over 2 venues, Birchensale Middle School and Woodfield Middle School.

Birchensale held the established competition as well as an emerging competition, and Woodfield held an emerging competition.

11 schools entered the competition, which resulted in 21 teams taking part.



In the Emerging Tournament that took place at Woodfield, the winners were Astwood Bank A with Astwood Bank B and Coppice A as runners up.

The winners of the Emerging Tournament that took place at Birchensale, were Batchley B and the runners up were Webheath B.

The winners in the Established competition were Mount Carmel A with Batchley A finishing as runners up.

It was great to see so many teams entering the tournament and showing lots of support for one another.



The tournament was organised and refereed by staff from Action Sport and Redditch Basketball Club.
The event would not have run so smoothly without staff and leaders from Birchensale and Woodfield.

Thanks to everyone who competed in and supported the event-It was a great success!

Now in its sixth year, Sainsbury’s Active Kids encourages kids to have a healthier lifestyle by helping them learn about the importance of eating well and being active. The scheme offers schools and organisations across the country free sports, cooking and gardening equipment and active experiences. This year almost 33,000 schools and clubs have signed up to Active Kids making it the biggest yet.
Active Kids has been running since February 2005 and has already given away more than £86 million worth of equipment and experiences to registered organisations. Now, for the first time, sports clubs that are Clubmark accredited can sign up to the scheme and benefit from free equipment and experiences.
Paul Farzam, Store Manager of Sainsbury’s Redditch said: “The Active Kids scheme is a great way for our whole community to pull together and provide young people in Redditch with free sports, cooking and gardening equipment. I’m sure that all of our customers will know of a local organisation that is collecting and they can donate their vouchers to, so we’re encouraging everyone to play their part and collect their vouchers when they’re shopping in store. Every year I see just how much local schools and groups benefit thanks to customers’ efforts and this year we want to make an even bigger difference for kids in this local area so we hope everyone gets involved”
Victoria Redfern, Sainsbury’s Active Kids manager, said: “Since its launch Sainsbury’s Active Kids scheme has been providing organisations with a whole host of sports, cooking and gardening equipment and active experiences to highlight the importance of eating well and being active to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The great news is that this year’s scheme has been extended so that Clubmark accredited sports clubs can join in the fun meaning even more kids will benefit from the scheme. Active Kids 2010 has got all the makings of being our best ever year”

If you haven’t already registered your school or organisation – register now today at www2.sainsburys.co.uk/activekids and start collecting vouchers for your FREE equipment and experiences!

The beginning of February saw the Year 5 Sportshall Athletics Tournament, the final of these competitions to be held for this year. The tournament took place at Abbey Stadium.

Each school entered a girls team and a boys team, consisting of 7 pupils on each team. All middle schools entered, in addition to Coppice Primary School and Meadow Green Primary School.

The teams rotated around 9 events during the afternoon. The Track events were a Fastest Lap, a Continuous 5 Lap Run, a 7 x 1 Relay and an Obstacle Relay. The field events were Standing Long Jump, Standing Triple Jump, Soft Javelin, Seated Weighted Shot and Speed Bounce.

The pupils were assisted and scored on the events by leaders from Saint Augustines High School.

The girls competition was won by St Bede’s Middle School with Birchensale Middle School as runners up. The boys competition was won by Woodfield Middle School with St Bede’s Middle School as runners up. Congratulations to all winners, and all of the teams who took part.

Please click on the link below if you would like to see the scores for the Year 5 tournament.

Year 5 Girls Results

Year 5 Boys Results

The Sportshall Athletics Tournaments have been a great success this year and we would like to thank all schools, leaders and staff for their support in making these such a highlight of the 2009/2010 sporting calendar.

The beginning of this half term saw the return of the Redditch Multi-skills Academy. Pupils from all over Redditch were identified through their schools, and have been attending a session every half term at Arrow Vale High School. These sessions have been run by Redditch School Sport Partnership and the Redditch Leadership Academy.



During the sessions, pupils have been taking part in a variety of Fusion Warm-Ups. Fusion warm ups aim to warm up the body and mind together.

The members of the academy have also been working around stations of multi-skills and recording their results, and improvements, in individual sticker books. They have also had the opportunity to play some competitive games such as Throw Tennis during their time in the academy.





Later on in the year the academy will be receiving some specialist sports coaching as part of their training,and during May, schools will be on the look out for additional members of the academy for next year-watch this space for more information!

During January, Redditch School Sport Partnership held a Sportshall Athletics Tournament for pupils in Year 4. The tournament took place at Arrow Vale High School.

Each team consisted of 7 pupils, a mixture of boys and girls with some schools entering more than one team. The event was entered by a total of 19 teams which was a fantastic turnout.

The teams rotated around 9 events during the afternoon. The Track events were a Fastest Lap, a Continuous 4 Lap Run, a 7 x 1 Relay and an Obstacle Relay. The field events were Standing Long Jump, Standing 3 Jumps, Soft Javelin, Seated Throw and Speed Bounce.



The pupils were assisted and scored on the events by leaders from Birchensale Middle School.



It was a fantastic competition which was won by Coppice 2 and the runners up were Webheath 1!

Please click on the link below if you would like to see the scores for the Year 4 tournament.

Year 4 Sportshall Athletics Competition


Place Team Score

1 Coppice 2- 268
2 Webheath 1- 238
3 Tardebigge- 236
4 Abbeywood 2- 230
5 Coppice 1- 226
6 Webheath 2- 224
7 Feckenham- 222
8 Astwood Bank- 220
9 Batchley- 218
9 Moon Moat- 218
11 Holyoakes Field 2- 214
12 Woodrow- 212
13 Meadow Green- 208
14 St Lukes- 198
15 Mount Carmel- 196
16 Abbeywood 1- 178
17 Holyoakes Field 1- 172
18 Matchborough 1- 170
19 Matchborough 2- 168


Congratulations to all winners and to all those who took part.

On 21st January Redditch saw the annual Sports Partnership Awards for 2009. The event was held at The Palace Theatre and the venue was packed out with nominee’s and their guests. The evening was an opportunity to celebrate the achievements from the past year of sports people from across Redditch.

The evening saw the main awards, alongside presentations of video’s from Redditch events, a case study on the partnership, and an inspirational Olympics DVD.

Congratulations to winners, as well as to all those nominated. This year the panel received more nominations than ever before, and the quality was highly impressive.

Winners from Redditch will be forwarded as nominee’s for the County Sports Awards which will take place in March.

Below are the winners from the evening

Senior Sports Personality

Margaret Dignum
Bromsgrove and Redditch Table Tennis Club



Junior Team of the Year (school)

St Bede’s Yr 6 Cricket Team



Junior Sports Personality

Clare Boycott
Astwood Bank Cricket Club


Senior Team of the Year

Kingsley College Under 19’s Girls Basketball Team



Club of the Year

Kingfisher Aikido Club



Sports Leader of the Year

Female Leader
Natalie Williams



Male Leader
Dan Jakeman



Junior Team of the Year (community)

Redditch Ravens Rugby League Under 14’s



Individual Performer of the Year

Beth Crumpton
Kingsley College



Disabled Sports Personality of the Year

Charlotte Fisher
Bromsgrove and Redditch Athletics Club



First School Link Teacher of the Year

Jess Owens
The Vaynor First School



Most Improved Pupil

Natasha Williams
St Augustines High School


Coach of the Year

Sheena Ball
Bromsgrove and Redditch Athletics Club



School Sports Co-ordinator of the Year

Lucy Chinn
St Augustines High School



Outstanding Contribution to PE and School Sport

Frances Furnell
Coppice Primary School



Volunteer of the Year

Elizabeth Prater
Redditch Lifesaving Club



Contribution to Physical Activity

Hayley Gwilliam



Outstanding Contribution Award

Mike James
Astwood Bank Cricket Club

Redditch School Sport Partnership has kicked off 2010 with another Sportshall Athletics Tournament. This time it was the turn of Year 7. Arrow Vale High School was the venue for the competition, and the event was supported by fantastic leaders from Arrow Vale and Kingsley College

The afternoon saw 2 separate competitions, one for the girls and one for the boys. The teams rotated around 9 activities as a school but girls and boys were scored separately. The Track events were a Fastest Lap, a Continuous 6 Lap Run, a 7 x 1 Relay and a 7 x 2 Relay. The field events were Standing Long Jump, Standing Triple Jump, Soft Javelin, Seated Weighted Shot and Speed Bounce.



It was a fantastic competition which was won by Walkwood Middle School in the boys competition, and Woodfield Middle School in the girls competition. The runners up in the boys competition were St Bede's Middle School and for the girls competition we had 3 teams tied in second place. These teams were Ridgeway Middle School, St Bede's Middle School and Walkwood Middle School.

This competition now goes onto a County event, but only one school is able to represent Redditch. The boys and girls scores were added together to mean that Walkwood Middle School were the over all winners and will go onto the county event, which is being held on Friday 5th March. Good luck to the Walkwood team!

Please click on the link below if you would like to see the full scores for Year 7.

Yr 7 Girls Results

Yr 7 Boys Results

Congratulations to all winners and to all those who took part.

On the morning of the last day of term before the Christmas holidays, some of our new Leadership Academy students arrived at Abbey Stadium ready for some training in Multi-skills.

During the morning they completed a number of Fusion Warm Ups. Fusion Warm ups aim to warm up the body and the mind together.



The leaders also had a go at some individual skill cards and thought about how they could use these as leaders and the benefits they hold to those taking part.





They finished the morning by participating in some games of Throw Tennis, which is when it got really competitive!

Before the leaders left, our Gold Young Ambassadors chatted to them about their own roles, and the prospect of the leaders becoming Silver Young Ambassadors.




The leaders were really enthusiastic despite it being very cold! We would like to say a huge thank you to all leaders and volunteers who support the Redditch School Sport Partnership. Without all of you, many of our events would not be able to take place and we are very lucky to have such a large group of high quality leaders.

This years SSCO Conference took place at Worcester Rugby Club on Friday 4th December.
SSCO’s from across the 8 School Sport Partnerships in Herefordshire and Worcestershire came together for the annual event.

Steve Smith, Olympic Bronze Medallist in High Jump from the Atlanta Olympics, was the Key Note Speaker for the event. He gave an inspirational beginning to the conference and spent the morning working and chatting with the SSCO’s.



The SSCO’s attended workshops on Innovative Development, Marketing, and Project Management, whilst also receiving updates on the 10 strands of work.

During the afternoon, Steve Grainger gave a national update before the SSCO’s had an opportunity to network with each other again, looking at the 10 strands of work.



The event was really well attended and received great feedback

The nomination forms are now available for the 2009 Redditch Sports Partnership Awards. The ceremony will take place in January and will recognise many of the outstanding achievements that have taken place during 2009 from local sports stars, and all of those people who work so hard for sport in the area.

There are 2 main Award Categories -School, and Community.

The awards you can nominate for in the School category are:

SSCO of the Year
PLT/FSLT of the Year
Most Improved Pupil Award
Sports Leader of the Year
Senior Team
Junior Team
Performer of the Year
Outstanding Contribution to PE & School Sport

The awards you can nominate for in the Community category are:

Junior Team of the Year
Club of the Year
Disabled Sports Personality of the Year
Outstanding Contribution Award
Senior Sports Personality of the Year
Coach of the Year
Junior Sports Personality
Volunteer of the Year
Contribution to Physical Activity

There are so many people across the district who deserve to be recognised for their achievements and contributions to PE and Sport. If you would like to submit a nomination you can download the nomination form below.

download a nomination form

November saw the first Inclusion Festival of this Academic year. Children from first schools were invited to attend the event which was held at Abbey Stadium. The festival was organised by our SSCO from Pitcheroak Special School and supported by young leaders from Pitcheroak.



Over 80 Children from Pitcheroak Special School, Abbeywood First School, St. Georges First School, St. Lukes First School, Astwood Bank First School, Tardebigge First School, Webheath First School, Vaynor First School, Oakhill First School, Holyoakes Field First School attended the afternoon of activities.



They took part in Box Hockey, New Age Kurling, Human Snakes and Ladders and Bench Ball. All of the children had a fantastic time trying out these new activities.

This term has seen Badminton tournaments in Years 9-11 for both boys and girls.

High Schools from the Redditch and North Worcestershire School Sport Partnership have been coming together with teams of 4 to compete against each other in a mixture of singles and doubles matches.



The winners from the Year 9 & 11 competitions will progress onto county finals with the potential opportunity of attending regional competitions as well.

Watch this space for details of all of the teams going through to the next round!

During November, two X Country events took place in Redditch.
The first was for pupils in Years 7-13 and took place at Ipsley Park with over 350 pupils participating. This was supported by leaders from NEW College, Arrow Vale High School, Woodrush High School, St Augustines High School and Kingsley College.



Medals were given to the first 6 participants in each race as well as scores being collected for the team results. The winning teams can be found below:

Yr 7 Girls St Bede’s A
Yr 7 Boys Walkwood A
Yr 8 Girls Walkwood A
Yr 8 Boys Walkwood A
Yr 9 Boys Kingsley
Yr 9 Girls Kingsley
Yr 10/11 Girls Kingsley
Yr 10/11 Boys Woodrush
Yr 12/13 Girls Kingsley



The second event was for pupils in Years 5 and 6 and took place at Birchensale Middle School/Redditch Rugby Club. This event was entered by over 250 pupils and was supported by leaders from St Augustines High School and Birchensale Middle School. Again, medals were given to the top 6 runners, whilst the team scores can be found below:

Yr 5 Girls Walkwood A
Yr 5 Boys Walkwood A
Yr 6 Girls St Bedes A
Yr 6 Boys Ridgeway A

Congratulations to all who took part.

In October, the Redditch School Sport Partnership published an end of year newsletter. This was sent out to all schools along with their PESSYP results for the last academic year.

There were so many events and successes last year that they could by no means all be included in this newsletter but we have tried to pick out a selection of news to give an idea of the variety and quality of work that is undertaken by staff and young people in Redditch.

You can see each page of the newsletter below.

Front Cover

First School

Middle School

High School

Partnership Games 09

Awards

Community and Leadership

Inclusion

On Friday 23rd October 2009 The Worcestershire Leadership Academy Launch took place at Worcester Racecourse. 200 outstanding leaders from Year 10 through to Year 13, were selected from schools across the county to attend the event.

Leadership Academies have evolved from the Step into Sport programme which is part of the Government’s Physical Education and Sports Strategy for Young People (PESSYP).

• A Leadership Academy will:

– Signpost or deliver appropriate qualifications and awards for young leaders.
– Provide opportunities for young leaders to learn from their peers.
– Share with young leaders a wide menu of volunteer opportunities (in school sport, in community clubs, events and organisations) and prepare and support them to undertake appropriate placements and volunteer experiences.
– Provide mentoring support for young leaders on a group and individual basis.
– Celebrate and profile the contribution young leaders make to school and community sport.

As part of the launch, leaders listened to an inspirational talk from Phil Brown.
Phil was a British athlete who competed mainly in the 400m. He was a fantastic anchor leg relay runner, anchoring the British team to a number of medals. Phil competed for Great Britain in the 1984 Olympics which were held in Los Angeles. In the 4 x 400m relay he won the Silver medal with his team mates Kriss Akabusi, Garry Cook and Todd Bennett. The team also won silver in the European Championships in 1982 and the World Championships in 1987.

During the day the leaders also took part in some problem solving and multi-skills activities, and attended workshops on time management and the online passport.





During their lunch break they had the opportunity to visit stands from a variety of National Governing Bodies.
Each Leadership Academy will now meet in their local area to train, develop, and organise activities for local young people to take part in.

The first set of Invasion Festivals took place in October for all of the school pyramids in Redditch.

Children in Year 4 from first schools across the district were invited to the high school or middle school in their pyramid to take part in a variety of activities. Across the schools these included football, netball, rugby and hockey.



The SSCO’s ran these activities, in many cases supported by young leaders from the High and Middle Schools.



The events were enjoyed by all and provided a great opportunity for hundreds of youngsters to take part in a festival.

The Redditch School Sport Partnership has now been given the results from the PESSYP survey for the 08-09 academic year.

The PESSYP data will be published in full on our PESSYP page very soon.


In the meantime, below are just a few of the fantastic results the partnership has achieved. Check back soon for the full results!


School Sport Partnerships are now being asked to report on the percentage of pupils participating in at least 3 hours of high quality PE and Out of Hours School Sport in a typical week. The figure for Redditch is 58%.

Percentage of pupils involved in Intra-School Competitive Activities = 83%
(an increase of 9% on last year)

Percentage of pupils involved in Inter-School Competition= 69% (an increase of 12% on last year)


These results are excellent and evidence of all of the hard work that is undertaken by the staff in Redditch.

The Partnership has also been recognised for good practice through becoming a case study for the Joint Delivery Plan and Partnership working with other organisations.

Click here to view the case study

This is all due to the hard work, enthusiasm and commitment of all of our staff, partners, and pupils.

Thank you and congratulations to all who have been involved with or supported Redditch School Sport Partnership this year!

The first half of the Autumn Term saw the first Middle School Table Tennis Tournament in Redditch.

Pupils from Church Hill Middle School and Woodfield Middle School attended the event which was held at Arrow Vale High School. The competition was organised by the Senior Competition Manager and the Sports Development Officer from Redditch Borough Council. The event was supported by young leaders from Arrow Vale High School and Coaches from Redditch Table Tennis Club.



During the afternoon, the pupils had a go at lots of different Table Tennis skills which were to become vital to them in the games they played later on in the afternoon. They all played in a number of matches against each other with the young leaders scoring the games.



Woodfield won the girls and boys competition on the afternoon and have been put forward to the County Table Tennis Competition which will take place in November.

Congratulations to all involved!

During October, Abbey Stadium was the venue for the first 2 Sportshall Athletics Tournaments for the 09-10 Academic Year. These competitions will take place across the year for students in Years 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. The first two to take place were the Year 8 & Year 6 competitions.

First was the Year 8’s. The afternoon consisted of 2 separate competitions, one for the girls and one for the boys. The teams rotated around 9 activities as a school but girls and boys were scored separately. The Track events were a Fastest Lap, a Continuous 6 Lap Run, a 7 x 1 Relay and a 7 x 2 Relay. The field events were Standing Long Jump, Standing Triple Jump, Soft Javelin, Seated Weighted Shot and Speed Bounce.



The pupils were assisted and scored on the events by leaders from St Augustines High School and Kingsley College.

It was a fantastic competition which was won by St Bede’s Middle School in both the girls and boys competition. The runners up in the girls competition was Woodrush High School and for the boys competition was Walkwood Middle School.

Please click on the link below if you would like to see the full scores for Year 8.

Yr 8 Girls Results

Yr 8 Boys Results

Two weeks later was the turn of Year 6. They took part in the same 9 activities and were assisted and scored by Young Leaders from St Augustines. The competition was won by Ipsley Middle School in both the boys and girls competitions with Woodfield Middle School runners up in both competitions.



Congratulations to all winners and to all those who took part.

We would like to say thank you to all of the young leaders who supported the competitions and to Sports Development for their help and expertise.

Full scores for Year 6 can be found on the link below.

Yr 6 Girls Results

Yr 6 Boys Results

The Redditch School Sport Partnership has changed the way it runs its Multi-Skills Academy. Pupils from Yr 4 and Yr 5 were last year identified from their first/primary schools for their abilities in Multi-skills.

We held an introduction to the Academy at the end of last year when the pupils all came together at Arrow Vale High School and undertook some work on multi-skills with leaders from the Redditch Leadership Academy.

The Academy, now in Year 5 and 6, will come together every half term at Arrow Vale, where they will continue to work on their multi-skills, and receive coaching from specialist coaches in a number of sports.

The academy will act as a support to these pupils and help to direct them into sports clubs which are appropriate for them and will help to develop them further.

September saw the annual conference for the new Young Ambassadors. The regional conference took place at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry and was attended by a number of Olympians and Paralympians, including Darren Campbell.



Each School Sport Partnership was asked to nominate 2 Ambassadors to take along to the conference, along with an ambassador who has already been undertaking the role.

The idea is that each partnership will have a Platinum Ambassador, 2 Gold Ambassadors and a number of Silver Ambassadors. They will use their role to encourage more people into sport and to use the London 2012 Olympics as motivation to get involved.



The day was hugely inspiring. The Olympians and Paralympians were allocated groups of young ambassadors to work with on the day. There were also some young ambassadors who have been involved in the programme and have hugely benefited from it, now being a part of the national steering group for Young Ambassadors.



Our 2 Young Amassadors, Will and Siobhan have come away with lots of ideas of how they are going to use their new role to inspire young people in Redditch and to get more people taking part in sport

The Young Ambassadors have been challenged to try and get more people YAing. That is, making the shapes of Y and A with different people and in different places. Craig Heap and Nick Robinson Baker showed us one way of doing it!



Watch this space for more information on how the Young Ambassadors are getting on!

On the 11th September, the first North Worcestershire and Redditch School Sport Partnership Captains morning took place at Bromsgrove Rugby Club.

High schools from across the two partnerships brought along their sports captains for this year to be a part of this new and exciting event.



There were a number of tasks throughout the morning, including discussing what a captain is, what qualities make a good captain, and the roles that they play.





The group listened to two speakers with experience of being captains, who gave inspiring accounts about the sort of role they will have to play.

The group were introduced to the new pennants which their school will receive should they win their leagues and they will now all receive a fixtures booklet with dates of all of their fixtures to help them in their new roles.

The event was a huge success with 131 captains from across the 2 partnerships attending and giving great feedback and the event.

Good luck to all of the captains and their teams in this years leagues!

July saw all of the High schools hold their Top Link festivals for the Year 2’s in their Cluster first and primary schools.

Festivals were organised and run by the PE staff and the Young Leaders in the High Schools.

The festivals varied across the partnership but all involved lots of fun activities for the young children to take part in.

Have a look at some of the photo’s from the events in our gallery.

This term has seen the First School Athletics Competition take place at Abbey Stadium.
Despite the unpredictable weather, teams turned out for the competition from Webheath First School, Meadow Green Primary School and Abbeywood First School.

During the afternoon the competitors took part in a 60m sprint, a 600m endurance race, long jump, high jump, javelin and ball throw.

The pupils were judged along the way by teachers, coaches and leaders and were scored overall as a team although their individual scores were also taken.

The overall winners of the competition were Webheath First School. However, the other schools gave them a great competition and some fantastic athletics took place during the event.

Well done to all who took part!

The North Worcestershire and Redditch SSP Games took place at the end of June at Abbey Stadium in Redditch.

This year over 1000 young people from Primary, Middle, Special and High Schools from across the 2 School Sport Partnerships attended the event and took part in a wide range of sports.

The Sports that took place on the day were Athletics, Ultimate Frisbee, Futsal, Tag Rugby, Dodgeball, Archery, Rowing, Trampolining, Boccia and New Age Kurling. Some of the activities were competitive with medals and trophies awarded to the winning teams. Other events were taster events to allow the young people to try new activities.

Despite an initial huge downpour of rain, the participants were hugely enthusiastic and made the event a massive success.

Thank you to everyone who helped to organise and run the day and to those who participated. It was a fantastic event for everyone to be proud of.

The Fieldfare Kielder Challenge is an inclusive national outdoor competition, running for over 20 years. The Challenge is based on outdoor problem solving games, designed to test the skills of a team to communicate, plan, solve and evaluate their performance. The games aim to challenge skills in teams of 8 young people aged 13-16 (4 with and 4 without disabilities). All team members can play an active role in solving the challenges and the inclusion of all should be a key goal of the team. There are opportunities for the team to pit themselves against the Challenge games within the school or group environment, out in the countryside and, ultimately in regional competition heats and even a national final.

This is the second year Redditch School Sport Partnership have entered this competition. This year we entered 2 teams, both made up of 4 pupils from Pitcheroak Special School and 4 pupils from Arrow Vale High School.

The teams had to take part in 5 challenges throughout the day and were scored according to their problem solving and team working skills. Both teams did fantastically well on the challenges and really enjoyed the day, despite the rain!



The Redditch teams finished in 1st and 4th place which is a great achievement. We now just have to wait and see if the team who finished in first place will qualify to go through to the final as it will depend on the scores of the winners in other heats taking place in the same region.



Whatever the final outcome, both teams should be very proud of themselves as their motivation and enthusiasm shone through and enabled them to complete the competition so well.

Over 130 girls aged between 12 and 19 years of age took part in a cheerleading and sports dance competition on the 6th May. The event was organised by the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Competition Manager Team, English Gymnastics and Redditch and North Worcestershire School Sport Partnerships. The competition followed on from the weeks of cheerleading coaching that have been funded and delivered in schools by the Worcester Warriors very own cheerleaders, the Kukri Allstars.

The event was held as part of the Sports Unlimited programme ,which is focused on engaging more young people in sport and physical activity. To date all 8 School Sport Partnerships within the 2 counties have received delivery, with this being the 3rd festival to take place.

9 schools took part in the competition held at Arrow Vale High School, Redditch, which for over half of the young people involved was their first experience of competition and representing their school.

During the previous week 21 leaders from schools across Redditch and Bromsgrove underwent some training on how to organise and run events. The course was delivered by English Gymnastics and meant that the leaders were on hand during the event to put their new skills into practice by managing the teams in addition to extra jobs such as organising the music and photography.



To add to the occasion two awards were presented; the best performance award which went to St Johns Middle School and the CHEERleading award which went to Walkwood Middle School and the Fusion team for their vocal support.



The festival was a huge success and the girls had a great time. There were some really impressive routines and the encouragement they gave each other throughout the whole festival was fantastic. All of the participants did their schools very proud!

During the last two weeks of the Spring Term, our SSCO’s have been holding their First School Cross Country Qualifiers. Pupils from the first schools have taken part in a cross country event which has been held at one of their feeder middle schools.

The top seven girls and boys from these events will now attend the next stage of the competition when they will compete against all of the other top seven pupils from schools within their cluster. These events will take place at the high schools.

The first school pupils were really enthusiastic despite the unpredictable weather conditions-well done to all of the pupils who have taken part across the district, and a huge thank you to the middle school leaders who helped with the events and made sure that the first school pupils had a great time!

The Herefordshire and Worcestershire Sports Partnership Awards 2009 took place at Worcester Warriors Rugby club during March.
Each of the districts from across the 2 counties nominated the winning sports people from their own awards ceremonies. The Sports Partnership then narrowed it down to 3 nominee's in each category.

The representatives put forward from Redditch were:

Dan Ruckwood from Redditch Swimming Club for Junior Male Sports Personality of the Year

Sally Turner from Redditch Trampoline Club for Coach of the Year

Georgette Mullen and Glenn Scott both of Redditch and Bromsgrove Athletics Club, nominated for Disabled Sports Personality of the Year.

Astwood Bank Cricket Club Under 15’s Girls for Junior Club Team of the Year

Will James from Kingsley College and Action Sport nominated for Young Volunteer of the Year

Chris Britt from Redditch Swimming Club nominated for Sports England’s Community Sports Award.

At the beginning of the evening, guests were treated to some speeches from two inspirational sports people. Firstly was Sascha Kindred OBE. Sascha is one of Britains most successful paralympians representing Great Britain at four games. His achievements to date include six Paralympic, five World, and eight European championship gold medals in the pool. He is currently British, European, Paralympic and World record holder and was appointed an officer of the order of the British Empire for his services to disability sport.
The second speaker was Rachel Walker. Rachel represented Great Britain in Hockey at the Bejing games. She has previously picked up a silver medal at the Commonwealth games and bronze medals at the European cup.

It was a fantastic evening for Redditch with successes in three award categories. Georgette was announced Disabled Sports Personality of the Year,



Astwood Bank Under 15’s Girls Cricket Team were named Junior Club Team of the Year.



Will James received the Young Volunteer of the Year Award.



Congratulations to all involved!

Arrow Vale High School was host for the Cluster Invasion Festival on 13th March 2009.
150 pupils from 5 different first schools attended the afternoon. Each school entered a whole class of Year 4 pupils into the festival which saw 10 pupils from each school playing in each of the activities, Football, Netball and Hockey.

In each sport, the schools played one another in a number of games which helped them to develop the skills needed for that sport.

The teams of pupils were each managed by leaders from the middle schools as well as Arrow Vale Sports College. The Sports College leaders also helped to referee the games.

Saturday 14th March 2009 was the “Kick Off” for this years Lads and Dads project.
The School Sport Partnership works together with the Early Years team at Worcestershire County Council and Early Years settings across Redditch to run the inaugural programme.

The Aims of the Lads and Dads project are:

To promote active physical development in young boys

To encourage more men to take an active part in their child’s learning

To increase parents awareness of learning through practical activities

To improve and promote reading and communication skills in young boys

To encourage the development of a mutually supportive partnership between home and the setting

36 lads and their dads from 11 Early Years settings across Redditch ,attended the morning of activities which took place at Arrow Vale Sports College. The lads came from the following Early Years settings:

Noahs Ark Nursery
Oak Hill Nursery
Holyoakes Field
Woodrow First School
Abbeywood First School
St Thomas Moore First School
St Lukes First School
Batchley First School
St Stephen’s Nursery
St Georges First School
Tudor Hall

This year, the children and their dads were welcomed to the event by a very special guest…..Bookstart Bear!



After a brief introduction to the morning, the lads and dads quickly got started with the physical activity aspect. There were 10 different stations for them to have a go at including a penalty kick, an obstacle course and target throwing.

Leaders from the Redditch Leadership Academy were on hand to warm everybody up and then to lead each group around the activities.







After the activities, the lads and dads were all ready for a drink and a rest! After some refreshments, the lads all settled down and listened to a story teller.



Next, it was time for the lads to go back to the sports hall with the leaders and play some parachute games. With everybody gathered around the parachute, the leaders played lots of games and got the children joining in and having fun.

Meanwhile, the dads were hearing all about the benefits of taking part in activities and reading with their children. They were given lots of useful information to take away and enable them to be able to carry on with similar activities at home.



At the end of the morning the lads and dads were brought back together. The lads were given a certificate for attending, and a bag with lots of equipment to enable them to carry on with some of the activities at home. The equipment bag included a large ball, chalk, a bat, a skipping rope and a frisbee.

There are two other events this year which the lads and dads have been invited to, a Forest Schools event in May, and the Cup Final event, similar to the Kick off, which will take place in June.

The event was a huge success with great feedback from lads, dads and leaders!

The Year 7 & 8 Extended Basketball Tournament took place at Trinity High school on Friday 6th March.

The tournament, which was organised by Action Sport and supported by Redditch Basketball Club was attended by 6 Middle Schools.

There were two tournaments running, one for girls and one for boys, and both saw some fantastic games.

Well done to all teams for taking part!

Congratulations to Walkwood Middle School, winners of the girls tournament and Birchensale Middle school who won the boys tournament.

Thank you to Action Sport and Redditch Basketball Club for organising and delivering a great tournament.

The first of the Redditch Dance Festivals took place at Kinglsey College at the beginning of March. Children from first schools attended the event and had the opportunity to put lots of ideas together to come up with their own dance.

The theme of the dance festival was WEATHER and their final dance incorporated moves around sunshine, rain, storms and rainbows. Leaders from Kingsley College were joining in and helping to give the younger chidlren ideas about their dance.



Teachers and tutors all agreed that the dance looked excellent!

All of the children enjoyed themselves and went away with a certificate to show that they had taken part in the festival.

Friday 27th February was the date for the Redditch Gymnastics festivals. Over 120 children attended the two events.

The morning saw pupils from Year 2 attend a Keysteps 1 festival. Pupils were split up into groups of 10 and rotated around Body Management, Floor and Vault. Stations were led by the Competition Manager, Gymnastics Development Officer, Sports Development and the Assistant PDM, and supported by the SSCOs. Pupils were on each activity for 20 minutes, learning and developing new skills. They were then given the opportunity to perform in front of their peers- allowing for the element of performance.



In the afternoon, Year 3 pupils arrived for the first Keysteps competition. Pupils arrived with a routine and had to perform amongst the floor, body management and vault stations.




Judges were 9 high school students, who in their half term attended a nationally recognised qualification in Introduction to Keysteps Judging.

Last term Redditch School Sport Partnership held an Identification Day for the Playground to Podium scheme.

Playground to Podium is a national strategy for the identification, development and support of talented young disabled athletes

Participants from schools across the district were invited to the event which took place at the Abbey Stadium and was organised by the SSCO from Pitcheroak Special School.

Over 80 pupils attended on the day representing their school. The schools were Pitcheroak Special School, Kingsley College, Arrow Vale Community High School, St Augustines High School, Woodrush High School, Birchensale Middle School and Ipsley Middle School

The pupils took part in a wide range of activities looking at their basic skills including balance agility and co-ordination. They also took part in activities which showed more specific skills such as throwing and catching and target throwing.

The pupils were assessed on each station and those who were selected in a number of areas were identified to progress to the next stage of the programme.

The identification day was very successful with lots of pupils being identified for the next stage.

The next stage of the programme will be County Assessment Centres where others identified in the same way from across the county will all attend a centralised event for a more formal assessment and high quality coaching in specific sports.

This term has seen the publication of the first ever edition of the Redditch School Sport Partnership Newsletter!

This edition shows some of the great work that took place in the partnership from September to December 2008.

We will be releasing a new edition each term to celebrate our work from the previous term.
If you would like to see the newsletter, copies have been sent to all schools.

You can also download the newsletter through the links below.

Front and Back Cover Edition1

Middle Cover Edition1

On the 22nd January 2009, Redditch saw the annual Sports Partnership Awards for 2008. The event was held at The Palace Theatre and the venue was packed out with nominee’s and their guests. The evening was an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of Redditch sports people from the last year.

The evening saw the main awards, alongside presentations of video’s, photo’s and 2 fantastic demonstrations from Redditch Special Olympics and Walkwood Middle School Cheerleaders.



Congratulations to the winners, as well as to all those nominated, the award panel had some very tough decisions to make due to the quality of all nominations.

Winners from Redditch will be forwarded as nominee’s for the County Sports Awards which will take place in March.

Below are the winners from the evening

Senior Sports Personality
Paul Wilkes, Redditch Swimming Club

Junior Team of the Year (school)
Ipsley Middle School Year 6/7 Football Team

Junior Sports Personality
Amie Richards, St Augustines High School

Senior Team of the Year
Arrow Vale Year 11 Rugby League Team

Club of the Year
Astwood Bank Cricket Club

Sports Leader of the Year
Will James, Kingsley College

Junior Team of the Year (community)
Astwood Bank Under 15’s Girls Cricket Team

Individual Performer of the Year
Jessica King, Walkwood Middle School

Male Disabled Sports Personality of the Year
Glenn Scott, Redditch Basketball Club & Redditch Athletics Club

Female Disabled Sports Personality of the Year
Georgette Mullen, Redditch Basketball Club & Redditch Athletics Club

First School Link Teacher of the Year
Hollie Walters, Webheath First School

Coach of the Year
Chris Britt, Redditch Swimming Club

School Sports Co-ordinator of the Year
Paul Homer, Birchensale Middle School

Outstanding Contribution to PE and School Sport
Chris Edwards, Trinity High School

Volunteer of the Year
Jason Spafford, Redditch Ravens

Outstanding Contribution Award
Douglas Billyard, Redditch Cricket, Hockey and Rugby Club

On Friday 12th December, the Redditch SSP saw the Yr 5 & 6 Swimming Gala take place. Six schools attended and pupils swam in a wide range of races.
The event was organised and run by Action Sport and Redditch Swimming Club.

Medals were given out for First Second and Third in each race whilst all of the races contributed to an overall winning school.

This year the winning school was Walkwood Middle School!

Congratulations to Walkwood on winning the Gala and a huge well done to all of the other competitiors for contributing to a brilliant afternoon.

Thank you to Action Sport and Redditch Swimming Club for organising the gala. The smooth running and enjoyment of all was thanks to all of the volunteers available to help for the afternoon.

The Redditch School Sport Partnership has now been given the results from the survey for the 07-08 academic year. The PESSCL data will be published in full on our PESSCL (soon to be re-named PESSYP)webpage in the new year.
In the meantime, below are just a few of the fantastic results the partnership has achieved. Check back in the new year for the full results!

Percentage of pupils participating in at least 2 hours of high quality PE and Out of Hours School Sport in a typical week = 95%

Percentage of pupils involved in Intra-School Competitive Activities = 74%

Percentage of pupils involved in Inter-School Competition= 57%

The partnership has continued to improve over the last academic year and these outstanding results are due to the hard work, enthusiasm and committment of all of our staff, partners,and pupils.

Thank you and congratulations to all who have been involved with or supported Redditch School Sport Partnership this year!

On 28th November, coaches from Aston Villa Football Club came to Redditch to do some work with our most talented footballers from Years 3&4.
Every school was invited to nominate 2 pupils to attend the event which took place at Rideway Middle School. 13 schools each sent 2 pupils who received some fantastic coaching and played in some excellent small sided games of football.
The coaches commented on how much of a successful afternoon it had been. They were very impressed with all of the footballers who attended and they really enjoyed working with them.
Three of the pupils have now been invited to attend development centres at Aston Villa in January and February.
The same event will be taking place in May but this time for pupils in years 5&6.

Friday 14th November saw the Redditch Sportshall Athletics Competition.

During the morning, the Year 7 and 8 teams from 7 Middle Schools competed, and during the afternoon it was the turn of Years 5 & 6, with 9 schools from across the district being represented.

Each team was made up of 8 boys and 8 girls and they each participated in 9 events. The track events were a 1 lap sprint, an 8x2 relay, a continuous run and an 8x1 relay. The field events were Chest Push, Speed Bounce, Standing Long Jump, Standing Triple Jump and Javelin.

The results were based on a points system meaning that all competitors were contributing to their schools final score. The whole day was enjoyed by all, we saw some fantastic athletics, and the results were extremely close.

Both events were won by St Bedes Middle School. A big well done to them and a big well done to the other schools for making it such a good competition. You can download the full scores from both competitions below:

Sports Hall Primary 2008 - Year 5 and 6

Sports Hall Primary 2008 - Year 7 and 8

During the last half term, teachers from schools in the Redditch and North Bromsgrove School Sport Partnerships, received some valuable training in Multi-Skills from Ronnie Heath.

The training took place at Abbey Stadium Redditch and was attended by approximately 80 people over 2 sessions. These included teachers, coaches, competition managers and members of the Redditch Leadership Academy.

The training was highly practical and gave attendee’s lots of ideas to take away in order to improve young peoples basic physical skills, including agility, balance and co-ordination.

Attendee’s left the training feeling positive, and inspired to use the training they had been given in order to improve the basic physical skills of the young people in their area.

Next year a follow on course will be held to build further on these ideas.

It’s come to that time of year when we start preparing for the Redditch Sports Partnership Awards. This is a ceremony to celebrate the sporting achievements from across the district throughout 2008.

The ceremony itself will be taking place in January 2009 so we are now looking for nominations for all of the awards. The categories range from individual sports stars to sports teams, clubs, coaches and teachers

Here you can download a nomination form and have a look at the many categories we have. The deadline for nominations is Friday 9th January 2009.

Redditch is bursting with sports stars and sporting achievements and we want to reward all of the people who work so hard to make it all happen.

So have a look, and get nominating!

On Friday 12th September 2008, The Worcestershire Leadership Academy Launch took place at The University of Worcester. 200 leaders from Year 10 through to Year 13, were selected from schools across the county to attend the event.

Leadership Academies have evolved from the Step into Sport programme which is part of the Government’s Physical Education and Sports Strategy for Young People (PESSYP).

A Leadership Academy will:

• Signpost or deliver appropriate qualifications and awards for young leaders.


• Provide opportunities for young leaders to learn from their peers.


• Share with young leaders a wide menu of volunteer opportunities (in school sport, in community clubs, events and organisations) and prepare and support them to undertake appropriate placements and volunteer experiences.


• Provide mentoring support for young leaders on a group and individual basis.


• Celebrate and profile the contribution young leaders make to school and community sport.

As part of the launch, leaders listened to an inspirational talk from Phil Brown.
Phil was a British athlete who competed mainly in the 400m. He was a fantastic anchor leg relay runner, anchoring the British team to a number of medals. Phil competed for Great Britain in the 1984 Olympics which were held in Los Angeles. In the 4 x 400m relay he won the Silver medal with his team mates Kriss Akabusi, Garry Cook and Todd Bennett. The team also won silver in the European Championships in 1982 and the World Championships in 1987.

During the day the leaders also took part in some team building activities, and attended workshops on funding, time management, volunteering and the online passport.

Each local area academy then designed a logo to be used for the Worcestershire Leadership Academy. All leaders voted for which logo they liked the best, with the winning logo being designed by the Wyre Forest Leadership Academy.

Each Leadership Academy will now meet in their local area to train, develop, and organise activities for local young people to take part in.

During the last academic year, two Mini Tennis events took place in Redditch. The events were based upon the County LTA format which enables the winning school team to progress to the Herefordshire and Worcestershire team finals.
The Redditch events were organised by the School Sport Partnership in conjunction with the Redditch Borough Council Action Sport team and the Senior Competition Manager for Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

Each team consisted of 4 pupils, 2 girls and 2 boys.
Players competed in singles matches against one of the 4 pupils from each of the other competing school teams. All of these matches counted towards determining the final school team results.
The matches were played on a badminton court, with a low net of standard height.

The Yr 5 and 6 competition was held on Thursday 15th May at Trinity High School and was attended by 2 teams from Coppice Primary School & 2 teams from Meadow Green Primary School.
Coppice “A” team were the winners, with Meadow Green “A” as runners up.

The Yr 3 and 4 competition was held on Thursday 22nd May at Kingsley College.
This event was attended by 3 teams from Meadow Green Primary & 2 teams from Harry Taylor First School.
Harry Taylor “B” team were the winners, with Meadow Green “A” runners up.
Harry Taylor participated in the county finals on Friday 11th July and although they didn’t finish in one of the top few places, their team was mainly Yr 3 pupils, who will still be eligible to take part in the same age group competition in 2008-9.

The North Worcestershire and Redditch Partnership Games took place at South Bromsgrove High School during National School Sports Week. The event was lucky enough to receive a visit from Dame Kelly Holmes. The Double Olympic Gold Medalist is National School Sport Champion and this event was chosen to be visited as an example of successful Inter School Competition. This joint partnership event was one of only 12 events to be visited during the week.

The inaugural North Worcestershire & Redditch Partnership Games was organised as a further response to increasing inter school competitive opportunities for pupils between the ages of 9-17; working in partnership with a wide range of agencies. The event was a celebration, building upon the successful delivery of the middle and high school league structures which has seen two School Sport Partnerships come together in a variety of fun, fixtures and festivals.

You can read Kelly Holmes' diary on her website, which includes the day she visited us. Make sure you check it out here.

During April pupils from schools in the Redditch School Sport Partnership participated in the Fieldfare Kielder Challenge heats which took place in Hereford.

The Kielder Challenge is an inclusive national outdoor adventure competition which has been running for over 20 years. It involves outdoor problem solving activities that test the skills of a team to work together, communicate, plan and evaluate. The Challenge is fully inclusive and open to all young people.

The activities challenge teams of eight 13 to 16 year olds, four with and four without disabilities. All team members play an active role in solving the challenges and the inclusion of all is a key goal for each team.

The Redditch team was made up of four pupils from Arrowvale High School and four pupils from Pitcheroak Special School. The pupils met for the first time on the morning of the challenge but quickly became a strong team and their confidence grew as the challenges progressed. Organisers were extremely impressed when they discovered the team had only met for the first time that day as they were working so well together.

Pupils from Ipsley CE Middle School are celebrating winning a major Premier League U11 mixed football tournament whilst representing Aston Villa at Reading's Madjeski Stadium. The entire tournament involved over 600 schools and 5,000 youngsters.

They won the Aston Villa first round tournament for Redditch followed by the Villa's Midland competition which meant they would go through to represent Aston Villa.

They then took part in a group competition at Pride Park in Derby which got them through to the final.

During the competition they faced teams representing Reading, Tottenham, Middlesborough, Manchester United and Fulham.

You can download the official report here.

During half term a selection of year four pupils from schools across Redditch took part in a Multi-skills Academy which took place at Arrowvale Sports Centre.

The participants had been selected by teachers and coaches from the district during a multi-skills afternoon held at Abbey Stadium during May.
During the Academy, which was held over 2 days in half term, the participants took part in activities to improve their basic skills including agility, balance and coordination. They were also given the opportunity to receive some coaching in cricket, table tennis and squash.

The second day was spent at Upton Warren with the participants working in teams and undertaking problem solving and outdoor activities.

All the Lads and Dads took part in 11 different activities which involved FUNdamental movement skills and simple ball skills including running, balancing, kicking, throwing and aiming at a target. Sometimes Dad helped his lad and other times he could have a go too! The Sports Leaders from Arrowvale took care of all of the activities and ensured everyone was having fun!
Following these activities the lads and dads enjoyed some refreshments before settling down as a Storyteller joined them to read some stories. After this the boys joined the leaders again for some parachute games.

All the lads took home a rucksack which had a bat, some balls, a skipping rope, a Frisbee and some chalk so they could carry on playing the different activities they had learned.

On the 5th July there will be a celebration event held at Arrowvale. This will be similar to the first morning and a great opportunity for the lads and dads to come back and show us how they have got on!

Arrow Vale High School produces a publication every term to show what is going on in the school in terms of sport and to highlight achievements and inform readers about future initiatives.

Redditch School Sport Partnership has been given a page of this publication to detail some of the work that is being undertaken in the wider partnership.

This is a great opportunity for others to see what the School Sport Partnership is achieving and how it is enhancing sport in Redditch.

Take a look at our first page in Sports Pitch and keep an eye out each term for new updates.