Sport

About the Sports and Physical Education Department

Inter-House Sport 06-07 Norfolk Honours Board 06-07 Sporting Successes 06-07
GCSE Results 2007 Physical Education Facilities Athletics Sports Day 2007
Cross-Country Swimming Cricket Sports Stars Boys’ Football Girls’ Football
West Norwich and Dereham School Sports Partnership Sports Leadership

Archive: 2005 - 2006, 2004 - 2005, 2003 - 2004

All pupils in Years 7 to 11 have 2 hours Physical Education a week.

Our curriculum follows the requirements of the National Curriculum and pupils experience a wide range of opportunities and sports in their time at Northgate.

Individual and team activities are fully catered for and we aim to deliver a balanced curriculum to all pupils.

The curriculum for pupils in Year 7 is Hockey, Fitness Work, Gymnastics, Swimming, Athletics and Tennis. Boys also do Football, Basketball, Rugby and Cricket. Girls also do Netball, Rounders and Dance.

Inter-House Sport 06-07

Inter-House sport is an integral part of the school calendar for all pupil age groups. Each of the 4 houses elect their own House Captains and captains are also elected for all the nine sporting events in the Year.

*HOUSE WINNERS - COWPER*
Autumn Term	Spring Term	Summer Term
Basketball - Cowper	Hockey - Cowper	Athletics - Nelson
Netball - Nelson	Football - Cowper	Tennis - Cowper
	Swimming - Cowper	Rounders - Nelson
For the first time, the House Cup was shared by Nelson and Cowper.

Norfolk Honours Board 06-07

Football	Adele McCrory	Cross Country	Luke Smith
			Joe Sandell
			Sean Watson
Swimming	Stephanie Tuvey	Cricket	Luke Findlay Robert Thurley Alex Bates Dale Reynolds Tim Weber Lewis Denmark Lewis Bates
Hockey	Charlotte Reeve
	Ellie Boyce
	Edward Turner
	William Edwards
	John Livings
	George Boldero
Netball	Chloe Bailey
	Yasmin Dodd
Squash	Victoria Brandwood
Rugby	Christian Wells	Athletics	Ashley Neave
	Tim Weber
Former Pupils	England Athletics Team – Chris Baker		Chris Baker
			Tim Weber
	East of England Hockey - John Livings		Chris Hemmant

Sporting Successes 06-07

U16 Boys Football	Runners up South Norfolk Cup
U12 Boys Football	Winners of South Norfolk League
U17 Boys X-Country	Area Winners
U15 Boys X-Country	Area Winners
U13 Boys X-Country	Area Winners
U13 Girls X-Country	Area Winners
U15 Mixed Athletics	Area Team Champions
U15 Boys Cricket	Norwich League Runners up
U14 Boys Cricket	Norwich League Runners up
U13 Boys Cricket	Norwich League Runners up

GCSE Results 2007

The GCSE Full and Short Course results were again excellent with the Full Course again showing an improvement on previous years.

Long Course 100% pass rate
36 pupils 75% A*-C pass rate
Four pupils, Stephanie Tuvey, Rose Peasgood, Chris Baker and Rob Thurley gained A grades
Short Course 34 pupils 74% A*-C pass rate
Three pupils gained A* - Abi Roberts, Callum Gregory and Luke Findlay.

The long course A*-C rate shows a real improvement over 5 years:

2003 – 42%
2004 – 67%
2005 – 70%
2006 – 73%
2007 – 75%

The Full Course GCSE consists of:

40% Theory exam
10% Analysis of a chosen sport
50% Practical assessment and moderation of 4 chosen sports

Short Course work is covered in Core time Physical Education – pupils take 2 sports as well as covering theory and analysis work.

GCSE Courses

Examination Board

Syllabus Number

Physical Education

EDEXCEL

1827

Physical Education (Short course)

EDEXCEL

3827

Examination Details:

Physical Education	Examination Composition	Written Examination 40% in May/June of Yr 11
		Practical Coursework in four Sports 50%
		Internal Assessment of the Analysis of a chosen Sport from one of four - 10%
	Coursework Deadlines	Practical assessments throughout Years10 and 11 and a Practical Examination in April of Year11. Pupils not opting for full GCSE have the opportunity to take 'short course' GCSE in core PE time. The short course is worth half a GCSE having the same format as above except coursework involves two sports and there is less theory work. The theory examination is a multiple choice paper.

Physical Education Facilities

We are very proud of the facilities that we have available for our pupils:

•	Sports Hall	•	Football Pitches (3)
•	Gymnasium	•	Hockey Pitches (2)
•	Fitness Room	•	Netball Courts in Winter (5)
•	Tennis Courts (5)	•	Outdoor basketball posts
•	Cricket Square	•	Artificial Cricket Strips (2)
•	Bay of five practice wickets	•	Athletics track - 8 lane
•	Hurdles track - 4 lane	•	Athletics Jump Area
•	Artificial Football Pitch

Champion Community Facilities Opened

We were delighted to welcome the former Sports Minister, Kate Hoey, MP, to perform the official opening ceremony for the new facilities. A former Northern Ireland High Jump champion, who went on to become a PE teacher, Kate Hoey heaped praise on the partnership approach which has seen the school work with local football clubs and the Football Foundation, to develop the revolutionary new facility. The Football Foundation gave a grant of almost £380,000 to enable the construction of the facilities which are in constant use by pupils throughout the school day. The artificial turf pitch is similar to that used at Manchester United's training centre, and other top flight soccer clubs, the infill being of granulated rubber crumb rather than sand. The project also includes a new building housing changing rooms, and officials' rooms each with showers and toilets, and facilities for spectators.

Having talked to pupils, including members of the School Council, Mrs Hoey, a long-time supporter of school sport, described Northgate as a "very rounded school", and said the first-class facilities would help pupils and the wider community and sports clubs.

Facilities such as this make sport more attractive to young people and would encourage participation, thereby helping to tackle obesity problems. She felt the 'real legacy' of the hosting the 2012 Olympics in Britain would be new facilities such as the Dereham Centre and inspiring youngsters into sport.

John Smith, Headteacher, said Mrs Hoey was very suitable to open the centre as she was so supportive of school sport and had a passionate belief that education should be free.
Present also at the ceremony was Paul Thorogood; a pupil at Northgate in the early 1970s he is now Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, a fact unknown to us until quite recently!

Dereham's record-breaking shooting legend, Mick Gault, was also present, long time acquaintance of Kate Hoey who supports him and other sports shooters in their fight to be able to train in Britain, following the ban on hand guns.

Pupils from primary schools linked to Northgate through the School Sport Partnership attended the ceremony, and took part in a mini-competition organised by Richard Phillis. St Nicholas, Scarning, Swanton Morley and Shipdham primary schools were represented and thoroughly enjoyed using the mini-pitches, watching a choreographed dance/basketball display and mingling with guests at the lunch.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to a very enjoyable occasion, in particular Mr Seagrave and Mr Phillis for organising the event.

Athletics

Two Northgate pupils were record-breakers at the County Athletics Championship.

Chris Baker broke his own County record to set a new mark of 2.00m in the Intermediate Boys’ High Jump. Chris has consistently jumped this height this year and with personal best of 2.03 he is currently ranked No. 1 in the U.K.

Tim Weber broke the Junior Boys’ Shot Putt with a throw of 13m 40cm. This beat the old record set in 1993 by half a metre. Tim’s distance also gives him an English Schools’ qualifying standard and currently ranks him in 6th place in the country.

Ashley Neeve gained a 1st place in the Junior Boys’ Triple Jump with a distance of 11m 30cm. Ashley also gained a 2nd place in the100 metres, coming a very close 2nd behind the winner with a time of 12 seconds.

Luke Smith ran well in the Junior Boys’ 1500m to record a personal best time of 4m 40, but he had to settle for 3rd place in a well-contested race. Ashley, Chris and Tim represented Norfolk in the Anglian Schools’ Championships at the UEA, which Norfolk won.

It was a successful afternoon for the Northgate athletes at the Mid-Norfolk Area Championships held at the UEA Sportspark.

The Year 9 Boys' team were especially successful with first places for Ashley Neave in the 100 metres and 80 metres hurdles, Tim Weber in the Shot, and Luke Smith in the 1500 metres. All these boys achieved County qualifying standards. The team won their competition with 91 points followed by Downham Market, 80 points, and Neatherd, 72 points. The Year 10/11 Boys' team also won their competition, with 82 points, followed by Neatherd on 79 and Downham Market on 73. Tom Crocker won the 100 metres and Chris Baker was first in both the High Jump and the Shot gain, and both boys gained qualifying standards for the County Championships on 9th June.

In the girls' team competitions, both Northgate teams finished 2nd, behind Litcham in the U15 age group and Hammonds in the U17 age group. In the U15 group Sasha Perkins won the Shot and Yasmin Dodd the Long Jump. In the U17 group Naomi Lyons Osborne won the 800 metres; both she and Sasha achieved County qualifying standard.

With both the girls’ and boys’ results added together to determine the overall winners, Northgate won both the U15 and the U 17 age groups.

U15
1. Northgate 150 points
2. Litcham 130 points
3. Neatherd 124 points

U.17
1. Northgate 151 points
2. Hammonds 143 points
3. Downham Market 133 points

English School Champions

It was a fantastic year for Chris Baker in Year 11 and Dani Nimmock at Dereham Sixth Form Centre.

They were both crowned champions at the English Schools Athletic Championships in July.

After lots of training, club competitions and Norfolk Championships the culmination of the Year for Schools Athletics is these championships. Standards of entry are high and this year Norfolk had a particularly strong team which meant that some pupils on the “fringe” of selection were not able to go.

The championships this year were held in Birmingham and it is a very rare event for two individual winners to come from the same school.

Chris came out winner in the Intermediate Boys High Jump with a jump of 2m 03cm.
Dani won the Senior Girls 3000m in a time of 10 min 6 sec which shows the massive strides she has made in last year.

Following on from these championships Chris was selected to represent England in the Home Countries Schools International in Wales.

Unfortunately there was no Senior Girls team so Dani was not able to gain her International vest – lets hope this will not be long in coming.

Photographs reproduced with kind permission of www.rwt-photography.co.uk

Sports Day 2007

The annual Sports Day at Northgate was completed on two separate days despite the difficult weather. There were many good performances with 4 new records set and 1 record equalled.

Individual year winners were:

Year 7 Girls – Hannah Bebbington who set a new record in the 100 metres also won the Hurdles and 800 metres.
Year 7 Boys – Nathan Pearson who won the 200 metres and High Jump.
Year 8 Girls – Annie Herring – 1st in the 100m and High Jump 2nd in 800m
Year 8 Boys – George Howard – 1st in 200m and 800m plus member of winning relay team.
Year 9 Girls – Charley Leeds – 1st in Hurdles and 200m plus member of winning relay team.
Year 9 Boys – Ashley Neave – 1st in 100m, 400m and Discus. Ashley equalled the 100m record and came very close to the 400m record.
Year 10 Girls Trophy shared by Kalie-Ann Bass and Chloe Arnold who both had a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
Year 10 Boys – Tom Crocker – 1st in 100m with a new record, 1st in 200m and High Jump.

Other new records were set by Ellie Boyce in the Year 8 Girls 200 metres and Tim Weber in the Year 9 Boys Shot.

The MacGibbon trophy for the most Promising Young Athletes was awarded to Hannah Bebbington and Ashley Neave and Chris Baker who was recently crowned English Schools Intermediate High Jump Champion, presented the trophy.

In the House Competition the result was very close with the results of Relay races deciding the outcome:

(1) Nelson 455 pts
(2) Borrow 438 pts
(3) Cowper 415 pts
(4) Walpole 395 pts

Cross-Country Success

Runners from Northgate were very successful in the mid-Norfolk Area Championships and many qualified to run in the County Championships at Earlham Park on Wednesday, 24th January.

Out of 6 team competitions Northgate won four - Year 7 Girls; Year 7 Boys; Year 9 Boys and Year 10/11 Boys. Northgate also had two individual race winners - Sean Watson in the Year 7 Boys’ race and Luke Smith in the Year 9 Boys’ race.

Both the Year 7 Girls and Boys teams were convincing winners with a high number of pupils in the first ten.

For the boys, Sean came 1st followed by Albert Van Dyke 3rd, Nathan Pearson 5th, Ryan Hawkin 6th, Sam Pledger 7th and Anthony Buckley 10th.

For the Girls, Hannah Bebbington was 4th, followed by Millie Miles 5th, Beth Buckingham 6th, and Marcie Milne 8th.

In the Year 9 Boys’ team, Luke Smith was 1st, Ashley Neeve 2nd, and Joe Sandell 3rd. With Edward Turner 7th and good runs by Soren Gauntlet and Hayden Gibbons, the team score was a winning one.

Ellie Boyce came 4th and Annie Herring ran well in the Year 8/9 Girls’ race, both qualifying to run in the County Championships.

The Boys’ Year 11 team of Kyle Talbot 2nd, Luis Gibbons 4th, Callum Gregory 6th, and Bruno Van Dyke also won their age group competition.

County Schools' Cross-Country

15 pupils from Northgate took part in the County Schools' Cross Country at Earlham Park, Norwich, and there were many good individual performances. Sean Watson came 3rd in the U13 Boys' race, Luke Smith came 3rd in the U15 Boys' race, with Joe Sandell, 7th. In this race there were also very good runs by Edward Turner, who finished 17th, and Ashley Neave, 20th. Luis Gibbons ran very well to finish 18th in the U17 Boys' and Katie Hodson also did well to finish 17th in the U17 Girls. Sean Watson, Luke Smith, and Joe Sandell were then selected to run for Norfolk in the Anglian Schools Race at Ipswich last Saturday. Sean finished 42nd, Luke 5th and Joe 14th in their races. Both Joe and Luke were selected to run at Leeds in the English Schools' Cross Country Championships in March.

Swimming Gala 2007

In an exciting and keenly contested annual swimming gala at Northgate there were many good performances.

In the Junior Gala three new records were set. Sean Watson in the Year 7, 50 metres Freestyle; Antony Buckley also Year 7 in the 50 metre backcrawl record with a new time of 40.42, and Faye Brown in the Year 7 Girls 50 metres Backcrawl (41.11). Sean set a new standard of 32.09 breaking a 15-year-old record. Kieran Davies was an impressive winner of the 25 metre breaststroke for Year 7’s and Matthew Surman also swam very well to record two victories in the Year 8 50 metres freestyle and 50 metres breaststroke. Matthew was also a member of the winning Year 8 Cowper team. Kayleigh Preston won both the Year 8 Girls 50 metre freestyle and 50 metre breaststroke races and was again a member of the winning Walpole relay team.

In the Senior Gala a number of pupils recorded victories in two events: Ed Turner in the Year 9 Boys 25 metre and 50 metre Freestyle, Yasmin Dodd in the Year 9 girls 25 metre Freestyle and 50 metre Freestyle, Chelsea Goslin-Minter in the Year 9 girls 25 metre and 50 metre Backcrawl, Josh Ward in the Senior boys 25 metre Backcrawl and 50 metre freestyle, Stephanie Tuvey in the Senior girls 50 metre Freestyle and 50 metre Breaststroke and David Hardy in the boys 25 metre freestyle and 50 metre breaststroke for Senior boys.

In the team competition the Junior Gala was very close with

1. Cowper 83 pts
2. Walpole 82 pts
3. Nelson 53 pts
4. Borrow 51 pts

In the Senior Gala Nelson were the clear winners:

1. Nelson 85 pts
2. Cowper 71 pts
3. Walpole 55 pts
4. Borrow 48 pts

When both Gala results were added together the overall result was:

1. Cowper 154 pts
2. Nelson 138 pts
3. Walpole 137 pts
4. Borrow 99 pts

Channel Swim!

Last term a small group of pupils swam the channel!! Pupils from all years turned up at swimming club on Thursdays and swam as many lengths as possible. After the initial session we registered and decided we could swim the channel as a team. And we did it! Exceptional contributions came from Lizzie O’Hara, who swam her heart out every Thursday, and also from Rebekah Booth and Rebecca Tuvey, who used their training with Dereham Otters to add some lengths.

Steph Tuvey, a very keen swimmer and also a member of Dereham Otters, decided that she could complete the Channel Swim on her own. Which she of course did!
Not only did we complete the Channel Swim, but we also raised £286 for ASPIRE, the country’s leading spinal cord injury charity. Once again, the four swimmers mentioned above did us proud and raised over £50 each, which awarded them an APSIRE Channel Swim T-shirt.

A big thank you to every swimmer who contributed a length or two, and also to everyone who was kind enough to sponsor the pupils.

Thanks also to Paul Robson and Dereham Swimming Pool for letting us use the Thursday afternoon slot for our swimming club. It will be a shame to stop the swimming club and your help has been much appreciated.

Norfolk Schools Swimming Gala

Swimmers from Years 7, 8 & 9 attended the Norfolk Schools swimming gala on June the 14th, competing against 11 other schools/partnerships from the county. It was a very noisy and action-packed afternoon, which all swimmers thoroughly enjoyed. As a school we filled 26 out of the 29 events, which is something all swimmers should be very proud of achieving. A special thanks to the Year 7 and 8 girls who swam up an age group to cover for the missing Year 9 swimmers.

Special congratulations should go to Sean Watson (Year 7) for finishing 1st in the 50m Breaststroke heat and 2nd in the 25m Butterfly heat, and to Harry Crisp (Year 8) for finishing 2nd in the 50m Backstroke heat.

Once again, a big ‘thank-you and well done’ goes to all swimmers for representing Northgate so well. Many thanks also to Mrs Taggart, who assisted in one way or another during the day.

Cricket

Congratulations to seven boys who have been selected for the Norfolk County Cricket squads this year:

Year 8 - Lewis Denmark, Lewis Bates
Year 9 - Alex Bates, Tim Weber
Year 10 - Dale Reynolds
Year 11 - Rob Thurley, Luke Findlay

The weather had a massive influence on how many matches were played in the Summer of 2007.

U15

The U15 team recorded some good results but in both cup competitions they have lost to strong teams in Reepham and Wymondham College. In the first round of the 20/20 competition the team recorded a great result. Chasing a total of 154 in 20 overs they overturned the total for 1 wicket with Dale Reynolds 75 not out and Matthew Milne, 36. Dale also scored 64 not out against Reepham in the semi-final of the County Cup. Unfortunately none of our other batsmen could match him. In League games the team defeated Thorpe, Sprowston and Blyth Jex, but lost to Reepham again in the final. The team showed good commitment and improvement over the year and many of the boys are playing club cricket regularly at a weekend.

U14

The Year 9 team were the most unfortunate with the weather, only being able to complete 2 games but they qualified for the League Final against Reepham which they unfortunately lost.

U13

The Year 8 team recorded some good victories in cup and league games but lost to the strong Wymondham College team in the quarter final of the County Cup.

Lewis Denmark batted well for the team, scoring 60 against Reepham. Nick Cains bowled well and also scored a maiden half-century against Costessey. The team reached the Final of the Norwich League after beating Taverham well in the deciding league game. We bowled Taverham out for 46 after scoring 110-3. Lewis Bates with 39 and Lewis Denmark with 31 both batted well and Ryan Adcock took 4 wickets.

In the Final against Eaton we bowled well but our batting do not match the bowling and we lost by 15 runs.

U12

The Year 7 team recorded 2 very good victories against Neatherd and Blyth Jex. We defeated Neatherd by 50 runs, scoring 88-8 and then bowling out the Neatherd for 38.
Ryan Hawkins (26) and Liam Cameron (18) batted well. Jack Hood with 3 wickets was our leading wicket taker. Against Blyth Jex, Ryan again batted well and Jordan Mustard took 4 wickets.

Sports Stars

John Livings

The last 12 months for John Livings have been enormously successful in playing hockey.
His performances lead to him being selected for both the U15 and U16 County teams where he produced a series of outstanding performances. Shortly before Christmas he made his first appearance for the Norwich Union 2nd team. After Christmas he made the 2nd team position is own to the extent that he was awarded the Player of the Year trophy.

His performances again attracted the attention of the county selectors and he was selected as the only goalkeeper in the U21 county squad, which finished runners up in the East Regional tournament. His performance in the tournament helped him to be selected to attend a five day coaching camp for the U17 East squad during August.

It’s not only his playing abilities that have been recognised but also his coaching ability. As well as helping with coaching of various school teams he has also been coaching young keepers on a Sunday morning at Dereham Hockey Club. In May of this year he was selected as one of 13 young leaders by England Hockey for the National Youth Hockey festival in Nottingham. This even helped to develop his leadership and coaching skills further as well as allowing him to mix with full England internationals who were playing as part of the festival.

His latest achievement is to be awarded a sponsorship contract by Mercian Hockey for his goalkeeping equipment following a recommendation from Simon Mason, the former Great Britain Olympic goalkeeper, following a two-day residential course.

The main aim this season is to claim the 1st team jumper with Norwich Union and to maintain his county places. Both of these aims look possible having already been selected for the U17 county team and playing 1st team in the pre-season friendlies to date.

Sean Watson

Sean has had a very successful season competing in the Biathlon.

He competed in all five events which included the Great Britain Championships. His seventh place in this event narrowly missed him gaining a GB place for the World Championships by one place and one second. His best performance of the year was a second place in the GB leg of the World Series at Weymouth. The end of the season result for the GB series was an overall fourth place GB ranking.

Boys’ Football

It was a mixed season for the Boys Football teams with some success and also some very close games in Cup and League defeats.

The U16 Boys team played as a very cohesive unit and although conceding very few goals they found goal scoring more difficult.

They reached the Final of the South Norfolk Cup where they played a strong Diss High School side, losing 2-0.

The U15 team improved and their results at the end of the year were good.

Both the U13 and U14 teams achieved some good results and losses were very close but in crucial cup and league games. The Year 7 – U12 team had a very successful year. With a high number of pupils attending practice sessions ‘A’ and ‘B’ sides both defeated the Neatherd and the team reached the semi final of the Cup and won the League Play-Off final. In the semi-final the team should have defeated Diss but lost 3-4 after leading for a good period of the game. They made no mistake in the League Play-Off Final defeating Attleborough 6-0.

Girls’ Football

An introduction to the Zebras – formed in 1999 and the oldest girls’ football club in the area. We gained our unique nickname through wearing an old Dereham Town men’s kit. We offer football training weekly after school, completely free of charge to girls of all ages and abilities.

Area Champions many times, our biggest achievements came in 2002, becoming Norfolk Champions and 2003, when we won the Coca Cola Cup at Norwich’s Colney training ground.

Anyone with an interest in football is welcome. We only ask that they try their best and have lots of fun! Older pupils assist me with the training, as positive role models for the younger girls and for their own development. Many continue to assist with the training long after they leave Northgate and have even felt encouraged to pursue a teaching/coaching career themselves! With support from several local sponsors, we run numerous tournaments for other schools, both primary and secondary in the area. In recent years we have also played prestigious friendlies against the Norwich City, Cambridge City (and United) academy teams.

Dereham Schools Girls’ Football Festival 2007

The annual Dereham School’s Girls’ Football Festival took place despite the less than friendly weather on Monday 18th June, at the new all-weather artificial pitch at Northgate High School. Nine out of the ten Dereham primary schools entered teams of girls made up from years 4, 5 and 6. Teams competed in two leagues of four as Garvestone and Hockering Primaries were a combined team, with the top two teams progressing into the semi-finals. Despite the persistent showers, the girls battled on with great determination, cheered on by many parents. During their visit each school was looked after by one of Northgate’s Junior Football Organisers, who helped arrange the tournament and refereed all of the matches.

The semi-finals saw keen favourites Toftwood Junior, after their earlier performances, play North Elmham Primary and St Nicholas Junior against Mattishall Primary. Two strong performances saw Toftwood and St Nicholas comfortably through to the final, which promised to be an entertaining one. Fourteen minutes of end-to-end football eventually saw Toftwood, their first appearance in the competition, come out on top to win this year’s Dereham School Girls’ Football Festival 2007.

Both Toftwood as winners and St Nicholas Junior as runners-up go through to the Partnership final and are joined by Mattishall Primary, who overcame North Elmham to win the third place play-off.

West Norwich and Dereham School Sports Partnership

The West Norwich and Dereham School Sports partnership is well into its second year and making fantastic progress. Northgate High School is linked with eight local feeder schools and together they are striving to achieve the Government’s Public Service Agreement targets, the most recent of which states that by 2008 the percentage of school children who spend a minimum of two hours per week on high-quality PE and school sport within and beyond the curriculum should be 85%. Having reached the 2006 target of 75% the Northgate family cluster have out-done themselves this year, achieving 97.5%. The dramatic rise is due to the number of opportunities that are currently being offered and the hard work from the partnership development manager, school sports coordinators and primary link teachers. The activities that have been provided in the primary schools include:

Tri Golf – This is a mini version of golf specifically for use by young children in primary and junior schools, which includes chippers with over-sized clubheads, putters, a variety of over-sized foam balls and other items needed to run the games and activities. The clubs have been specially designed so that they are safe to use in the school environment and make it easy for the children to achieve success.

For further information visit http://www.golf-foundation.org/index.cfm?id=108

West Norwich & Dereham Partnership Girls Football Final 2007

The weather for the final was not much better than for the family tournament and half-way through a thunder and lightning storm temporarily stopped play. However, the seven teams who made it though to the final:

- Toftwood Junior School
- St Nicholas Junior School
- Costessey Junior School
- Firside Middle School
- Bawdeswell Primary School
- Mattishall Primary School
- Corpusty Primary School

battled on in very damp conditions, to make the day a success. After the league stages, Toftwood, St Nicholas, Corpusty and Firside made it into the semi-finals. After two very closely-fought games, St Nicholas and Toftwood overcame their opponents by a single goal each to set up a replay of the family cluster final two weeks earlier.

After 14 minutes of good-quality football from both sides, the stalemate was broken by Amber Cantwell who scored with a long-range shot after a mistake by the Toftwood keeper. Amber’s goal, which was late in the second half, completed the victory, reversing the honours to see St Nicholas win this year’s partnership final with Toftwood coming runners-up.

A big ‘congratulation’ goes to St Nicholas Junior School and all the other schools that have competed in the various rounds of the tournament this year. Of course, it is nice to win, but the emphasis of these events is on as many schools as possible participating and allowing pupils the opportunity to compete and have fun.

A massive ‘thank-you and congratulations’ should also be extended to the twenty-three Year 10 pupils from Northgate High School who completed their FA Junior Football Organisers’ Award, which gives them the specific skills and knowledge to organise and run up mini festivals such as these.

Year 10 pupils who achieved their JFO award:

Dale Reynolds, John Livings, Tom Crocker, Jack Harvey, David Lake, Chloe Arnold, Olivia North, Gaynor Wagg, Leisha Wegg, Emily Bell, Ollie Bone, Joel Brien, Mark Copplestone, Naomi Lyons Osborne, Kalie Ann Bass, Mel Grey, Poppy Thomas, Liam Stubbs Jodie Quirke, Will Edwards, Nichola Wright, Rebekah Bainbridge and Sarah Simpson.

Pupils take RYA Sailing award at Whitlingham Outdoor Education Centre

As part of the Partnership’s work to help boost pupils’ confidence and allow them to experience activities they might not otherwise get the chance to do, twelve Year 8 pupils were selected to take part in initiatives whereby they would get the opportunity to go sailing in Norwich and work towards achieving their Royal Yacht Association Level One Sailing award. Stephen Barnard, Oscar Milnes, James Pooley, Fraser Brown, Peter Matsell, Zak Wilson, Emily Hipper, Chloe Allen, Isabella Jefferies, Laura Wernham, Eva Woodhouse and Rhiannon Wright visited Whitlingham Outdoor Education Centre in Norwich for 8 weeks of lessons with Tamsin, our sailing instructor. Pupils leant all about the “Toppers” they would be sailing, how to rig and de-rig a boat, how to tie specific knots and spent lots of time sailing on the water.

Whitlingham Outdoor Education Centre opened in September 2005 and runs many different courses for sailing, canoeing, kayaking, windsurfing as well as climbing and mountain-biking. Pupils were taught about safety on the water and how to deal with a capsized boat. Starting off in pairs, pupils worked toward sailing a boat on their own. By the end of the eight weeks about half of the group had progressed so quickly that they had managed to cover all of the requirements in order to gain their Level Two awards. ‘Well done’ to all of the pupils who were involved for gaining their awards.

If you are interested in trying some of the activities that they offer at the Outdoor Education Centre, then visit the website and have a look for yourself.

www.whitlinghamoec.co.uk

Sports Leadership

The Sports Leadership Award (Level 1) is a nationally recognised qualification run by the Youth Sport Trust. During the course you learn how to lead sports and physical activities, how to organise and motivate yourself and other people, and improve your communication skills. The course helps develop vital leadership skills, helps boost your confidence and will also help you in work, education and life.

A large number of Year 10 girls opted for this course during their core PE time back in September 2006. They completed numerous tasks, helping to develop their key skills such as organisation, communication and leadership, in preparation for their actual practical experience. Here they taught small games and activities to their peers. The pupils have worked brilliantly throughout the course and the majority are on task to pass the course. Well done!

A special ‘well done’ goes to Chloe Watkins, Alex Newman and Camilla Stone, who have attended Kings Park on a weekly basis during their lunch hour to assist with a lunchtime multi-skills sports club.