Children feel pride at Friendship Games

The South Cambs School Sports Partnership recently hosted a “Friendship Games” event at Trumpington Park Primary School which involved year 4/5 pupils from the host school as well as groups from Histon & Impington Brook Primary, Coton Primary & Harston & Newton Primary Schools.

Around 80 children took part in the event, which was about developing social connections, increasing children’s confidence & motivation and engaging new audiences in physical activity and sport.

During the afternoon children got to take part in a number of different activities which included rugby, football, rapid fire cricket as well as others such as archery, frisbee games and dodgeball which they might not have tried before. Sport leaders from Trumpington Community College supported the event and worked with coaches from Shelford Rugby Club, Decathlon, the Football Fun Factory and Cambs Cricket to make sure the children had a really fun packed afternoon.

As something new there was also an event village where children could make smoothies by pedaling a bike, chat to staff from the local Wildlife Trust, learn more about healthy lifestyles from the Healthy You team or share their ideas of what activities they would like to do in their local area to keep active with staff from Living Sport, the active partnership for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough.

Claire McDonnell, organiser of the event said “The focus was very much on providing a fun and enjoyable event for the children, giving them a chance to try out some new sports and activities and hopefully helping to boost their confidence and self-esteem and i think we achieved this on the whole. We wouldn’t have been able to do this though without the support of the different groups involved in the event as well as the excellent team of sports leaders from  Trumpington Community College who showed excellent communication and organisational skills in leading the activities. A big thanks to all of them.”

Following the event children said how they felt “really proud when I whacked the cricket ball and it went a really long way” and “I didn’t think I’d like rugby but this was really good, I liked playing with my friends.”

Whilst staff commented on how “the event was such a positive experience for all the children. Some of our participants find it difficult to engage in curricular PE sessions so to see them actively engaged in all the activities with beaming smiles and amongst other schools at a different venue was really special.” Staff from another school commented on how the children “felt so proud to represent the school and it made them feel special.”