One Afternoon, Two Competitions

The fantastic facilities at Cambridge University Sports Ground on Wilberforce Road played host to the annual South Cambs SSP Year 5/6 Quadkids Athletics Competition and the Year 4/5/6 Small Schools Competition on 7th June with a record 32 teams competing in both events. We weren’t quite so lucky with the weather this year and the Small Schools got a little damp during their break. This year, to enable as many schools to participate as possible we ran the two competitions one after the other, the one for ‘Small Schools’ open to schools with fewer than 120 pupils in Key Stage 2 from 12:30pm-3pm and one for ‘Big Schools’ open to schools with more than 120 pupils in Key Stage 2 from 4pm – 6:30pm. Teams were not only competing for the title of ‘South Cambs Champions 2018’ but also the honour of representing the partnership at the County School Games Finals later in the month in St Ives.

Quadkids is a team based competition with 5 boys and 5 girls each competing in a 75m sprint, a 600m run, a long jump and vortex howler throw. Individual performances are scored using a points table and the winners are the team with the highest cumulative points score.

The ‘Big Schools’ team competition was closely contested with only 173 points between first and tenth teams. The eventual winners were Bassingbourn A Team who finished ahead of runners up Swavesey A Team; both teams now qualify for the County School Games Summer Festival on 28th June in St Ives. In third place was Linton Heights primary school.

In the ‘Small Schools’ competition the team from Harston and Newton Primary finished as clear winners with Coton, coming second for the second year in a row. In third place was Barrington Primary. This sees Harston and Newton and Coton off to the County School Games.

There were also some great individual performances. The top ‘Big Schools’ boys we had Finlay from Bassingbourn with 191 points in first place, Morgan from Bassingbourn coming second with 182 points and third we had a tie with three boys all having 178 points, they were Alfie from Bassingbourn, Ryan from Histon and Alex from Jeavons Wood. For the girls we had Nicole from Bar Hill with 180 points in first place, Sophie from Pendragon with 163 points second, and Anna from Histon coming third with 140 points. The top ‘Small Schools’ individual winners were, for the boys, Thomas from Harston and Newton in first place with 181 points, Elliot from Elsworth in second place with 177 and Austin from Barrington in third place with 176 and for the girls we saw Maddie from Coton in first place with 176 points, Olivia from Coton in second place with 168 points and in third place was Summer from Harston and Newton with 144 points.

Our special ‘Spirit of the Games’ award which is to support the work being done in schools to encourage children to think about the lessons that can be learned through sport and the importance of values such as respect, determination, teamwork, honesty, passion and self-belief; not only in sport but everyday life. Was awarded to the following children over the two competitions:

Emma from Bassingbourn for a positive attitude, Charlotte from Melbourn, William from Swavesey for determination, Ellis from Pendragon for determination and a positive attitude, Isabel from Steeple Morden for determination and a positive attitude, Katlin from Cottenham for giving everything 100% and with a smile, Freddie from Steeple Morden for excellent effort in everything he did, Isla from Fowlmere for self belief, Juno from Dry Drayton for determination, Hannah from Coton for being supportive to all of her group, Issac from Great Abington for Team Work and determination, Charlotte from Fen Drayton for her enthusiasm, Julius from University of Cambridge Primary School for determination and last but by no means least, Alex from Fen Drayton for passion.

The event was supported by leaders from our Leadership Academy. The ‘Small Schools’ Competition was supported by a team of 30 Swavesey Sports leaders who stayed on to the do the ‘Big Schools’ Competition later with other leaders from Cambourne Village College, Comberton Village College, Impington Village College and Melbourn Village College. The leaders were fantastic and helped all 320 children get to every event, get them scored and timed. This year we have introduced Leaders Awards where members of staff from participating schools can nominate the best leaders. This event saw Tom Newman from Swavesey VC, Alannah, McEntee from Swavesey VC getting one nomination each, Hannah Stanlay from Swavesey VC getting two nominations and Max Kellen getting an amazing four nominations, these leaders are in year 9 and this is their first event but you really wouldn’t have known.

Claire McDonnell, Partnership Manager said “It was a great event and fantastic for the children to get to compete at the athletics track and use such lovely facilities, I hope it will have inspired some of them to get more involved in athletics. There were some excellent performances on the day so congratulations to all of our winners and well done to everyone who took part. As always we have to thank the amazing sports leaders who organised and scored the events for us, they did a great job and the staff and parents were full of praise for them. ”

FULL RESULTS

Big Schools