Tag: Active Schools

City primary schools on their marks for sports event

ActiveMore than 1,000 primary school pupils will compete in one of the biggest ever school sports events in Edinburgh next week. The P6 pupils are taking part in the Games @ THE HUB event at Forrester High School Community Sports Hub next Wednesday (12 June).

Clyde, the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games mascot, will also be making an appearance at the start of the event to welcome all the pupils.

This is the first event of its kind delivered by Active Schools and its purpose is to promote participation in sport in the build-up to Glasgow 2014. Pupils will compete in ten different sports: hockey, football, rugby, basketball, netball, gymnastics, cricket, volleyball, boccia and  tennis.

As well as the pupils taking part over fifty volunteers from the Young Ambassador programme – which is delivered by sportscotland in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust – and school sports leaders from across the city will be lending a hand to ensure everything runs smoothly on the day.

Jodi McGinty, a platinum Young Ambassador and torch bearer at the Olympics, will be presenting the shields to the winning teams. Jodi is also on the Young People’s Sport Panel, which is led by sportscotland in partnership with Young Scot.

One of the events is the Paralympic Sport Boccia which 10 of the teams will be trying out. Boccia is related to bowls and was originally designed to be played by people with cerebral palsy but now includes athletes with other disabilities.

Primary schools will send teams of 10 P6 pupils, both boys and girls, to take part in a competitive session in the morning and then a participative event in the afternoon. These sessions will be run by Children & Families’ Sports Development Officers, National Governing Bodies and local community clubs.

Active Schools hope this will be the start of an annual event. Each year, primary schools across the city will be able to take part in the competitive session of each sport where the winner will be presented with a shield.

Catherine_Fullerton_7_200x200[1]

Councillor Cathy Fullerton, Vice Convener for Education (pictured above), said: “Glasgow 2014 presents us with a fantastic opportunity to promote a variety of sports across the Capital and this event is a great way of promoting this. I’m going along on the day to see everyone taking part and am delighted that so many primary school pupils are getting the opportunity to experience Games @ THE HUB.

“The facilities at Forrester/St Augustine’s are second to none and I know everyone will have a great time. Hopefully many of the children will be inspired to take up some of the sports outside of school and I want to thank everyone involved especially all the volunteers.”

Jacqueline Lynn, sportscotland’s Head of School and Community Sport, said: “The Games @ THE HUB event is sure to be an action-packed day of sport and physical activity and it will by wonderful to see so many pupils taking part.

“We are committed at sportscotland to increasing the opportunities for children and young people to participate in school sport, and significant progress is being made through our Active Schools Network and Community Sport Hub initiative. The Active Schools team in Edinburgh has done an excellent job in organising this event and we commend them for their efforts.”

 

Gym Fest 2012 hits new heights

aEdinburgh Leisure and Active Schools teamed up again to stage Gymfest, a celebration of the city’s young gymnasts, at Broughton High School yesterday. And with financial support from Active City the annual display reached new heights – quite literally! fA wide range of gymnasts from across the city took part in the Broughton spectacular – from enthusiastic new dancers and fun gymnasts (some performing in public for the first time) to top young athletes who already participate in competitions – and the packed audience was entertained from start to finish by some spectacular performances. kGiven the high standards throughout the afternoon it was fitting that all the participants received medals, so take a bow:

City of Edinburgh Gymnastics Club (Senior Team)

City of Edinburgh Broughton Recreation Team

Blackhall Primary School Gymnastics Club

Castlebrae Community High School Gymnastics Club

Broughton High School Gymnastics Club

City of Edinburgh Firrhill Recreation team

Tynecastle High School Gymnastics Club

Gylemuir Primary School Gymnastics Club

Granton Primary School Dance Group

Corstorphine Primary School Gymnastics Club

Ferryhill Primary School Gymnastics Group

Pentland Primary School Gymnastics Club

Stockbridge Primary Dance Group

City of Edinburgh Gymnastics Club Display Team

puzz5bglqvz1z6

 

Community celebrates rapid rise of Blackhall Athletic

Broughton High School was the venue for a reception to mark the formation of a new local football club last night. It’s been a meteoric rise – six months ago Blackhall Athletic didn’t exist, but now has teams playing in three football leagues!  

Club chairman John Adams explained: “Blackhall Athletic really came about through conversations in the pub! A number of parents were talking in the Blackhall Lounge – their kids were members of a team but the boys were not always getting a game. Everyone agreed that it was important that the kids get a chance to enjoy taking part in sport, no matter their abilities. It was from those conversations that the idea for the club was born”.

John (pictured above) is retired, but remains very active within the community and he was ‘coerced’ into helping parents set up a new football team for boys from Blackhall and the surrounding neighbourhoods. In August, just months later, Blackhall Athletic had three teams playing league football.

That’s a cause for celebration and last night parents, coaches and players got together at Blackhall Athletic’s Broughton High School home to say thanks to the people who made it all possible – Carey, Peri, Blackhall Sports Committee, Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership and Craigleith Blackhall Community Council have all showed their support for the new club through sponsorship.

John added: “We’ve received tremendous support from a number of sources. To make a success of something like this you really need two things – money and dedicated people to volunteer their support. It’s been quite  lot of hard work but we have both in place and we’re now able to offer young people the opportunity to come along and get involved, enjoy a game of organised football whatever your skill level. We will never be results driven – Blackhall Athletic is very much a community football club, all about sporting endeavour and playing the game in the right spirit. Everything is set up for the boys now – we have good coaches and the facilities here at Broughton are first class.”

Robert Ure (pictured below) is the Active Schools coordinator based at Broughton High School’s Sports hub. He told guests: “Blackhall Athletic is the first club to be launched from the hub here so this is a very exciting time. We are delighted to host Blackhall Athletic, and I’m delighted they have made their home here at Broughton. Our aim is to offer sporting activities for everyone – we provide a wide range of sporting opportunities with lots of different options, from dance to rugby and everything in between, so come along and give it a try!”

Blackhall Athletics has two Under Tens teams and an Under Thirteen squad side too. Given their meteoric rise, don’t rule out more teams and age groups being added to that list some time soon!

 

Olympic Reflections

 

The North Neighbourhood Olympic Torch Project came to a dramatic finale on the 30 May when participants took part in a Mini Olympians final event at Bangholm (writes Ricky Karoyan). Pupils were split into countries before taking part in various Olympic sports – from athletics to martial arts – and competing to win gold!  Pupils were awarded prizes based on effort and being a good player in keeping with the Olympic values.

The torch started it’s journey at Craigroyston Primary on Tuesday 21 February.  The torch was then delivered to St Davids and ended up at Lorne Primary on the 21 May.   As the torch travelled from school to school the pupils got to experience one of the Olympic sports, whilst also sharing the experience with a neighbouring school.  They even got to meet some Team GB Olympians, such as hockey player Graham Moodey) and athlete Lynsey Sharp, who visited schools in their Olympic Games kit!  This project involved P3’s from 11 schools from across North Edinburgh.

The activities experienced were hockey, basketball, judo, athletics, Paralympics events, handball, taekwondo, seated volleyball, fencing and boccia.

The pupils had a great time and learned lots of exciting new sports and skills with neighbouring schools.  Active Schools were really impressed with the effort that the classes put into their class presentations and their flag and mini torch making.

A special thanks to all the schools who supported this project and for their enthusiasm and energy.  Also a big thanks to Telford College who delivered our final festival, bringing lots of energy and excitement to the event. Lets hope our mini Olympians are future Olympic athletes in the making!

Ricky Karoyan

Active Schools Coordinator, Craigroyston Cluster

Sneak peek at Olympic torch!

Can’t wait for the arrival of the Olympic torch this afternoon? Well, here’s a sneak preview to whet your appetite!

This version of the torch was on display at Bangholm Playing Fields for the culmination of the Active Kids Olympic events on 30 May. Local Active Schools Coordinator Ricky Karoyan (above, right) was joined by her Trinity Academy cluster colleague Nicky Wheatley for the big finale.

A great day was had by all, and special thanks to Johnny Martinez from Edinburgh’s Telford College, who with a team of Year 2 HND Events Management students, ensured the festival event ran without a hitch!

For those who insist on seeing the ‘real thing’, however, times this evening are as follows:

18:15 – Depart Chesser Avenue along Slateford Road to Shandon Place

18:35 – Colinton Road at Gray’s Loan

18:40 – Bruntsfield Place at Holy Corner

18:55 – Lauriston Place at Tollcross

19:00 – George IV Bridge

19:05 – Lawnmarket at North Bank Street/The Mound

After that, the Flame will travel up to the Castle for the ticket only Evening Celebration event – NOTE tickets have all been allocated.

On the morning of Thursday 14th June, you will be able to see the Flame at the following locations:

07:00 – Festival Square at the Big Screen

07:12 – The Grassmarket

07:20 – George IV Bridge at the Royal Mile

07:30 – Scottish Parliament

07:45 – Pleasance

08:00 – Scottish Widows building opposite Royal Commonwealth Pool

08:15 – Duddingston Village on Old Church Lane

08:25 – Milton Road West

The torch will then leave Edinburgh and continue on to Musselburgh.

NB all timings are approximate and subject to change.

Local pupils carry Olympic Torch!

North Neighbourhood Active Schools Mini Olympians!

The Mini Olympians project has been developed and delivered by the North Neighbourhood Active Schools Team and runs from February until May. The project is engaging P3 or P4 pupils per primary school. A total of 17 classes from 12 school are taking part, with representation from four clusters (Craigroyston, Trinity, Drummond and Leith). The aim of the project is to raise awareness of the Olympics and Paralympics among young children and to encourage these pupils to become more active and involved in sports, right through to the Commonwealth games in 2014 and beyond. It is hoped that by keeping Olympic awareness and excitement levels high the North Neighbourhood Team will create their own local legacy, which we hope will be of More Active Children!

Our very own Olympic torch started its journey in the Craigroyston Cluster in February and was passed on to the Trinity Cluster last week. Pirniehall passed on the North Neighbourhood Torch to Craigroyston pupils, Craigroyston to St David’s, St David’s to Forthview and Forthview then passed the torch on to Wardie. Each participating class will do a mini project around the time of their scheduled visit and pupils can follow the torch virtually and link with other mini Olympians via a Glow page.

Each participating class has been allocated an Olympic/Paralympic sport which the school has researched prior to their torch visit. Project topics have included stars of the sport, history of the sport, Olympic/Paralympic values, etc. Also each class pupil will create their own hand made torch, which they will exchange with a mini Olympian from another school.

The lay out of the sessions have looked something like this:

Arrival and welcome

Host class presentation to visiting school

Exchange of mini torches with new friends

Introduction to sport

Sports event (45 – 60 minutes)

Exchange of North Neighbourhood Torch

The first session took place on Tuesday 21 February where Pirniehall delivered the Torch to Craigroyston. The children at this session had so much energy and enthusiasm! Craigroyston welcomed Pirniehall by decorating their gym hall in handmade Olympic and Paralympic pictures, and they also staged a fun and informative presentation. The sport for this session was hockey and we were elated to have former Olympian and current Scotland international hockey player Graham Moodie. Graham was a member of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland squad that finished ninth at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and he was also part of the Great Britain training squad for the Beijing games in 2008. Graham wore his team GB Athens Olympic kit, which caused quite a stir with the children. He spoke proudly about his involvement in the Olympics and generated a lot of interest from pupils who asked some exceptional questions about his experience.  After the presentation, pupils then played games and brushed up their hockey skills before Pirniehall presented the torch to Craigroyston Primary. The session had a buzz around it leaving everyone involved with a happy glow!

The Olympic Torch project will come to an exciting finish when each school class involved will participate in an Olympic-themed Festival at the end of May. The project ties in various elements of the curriculum for excellence, including Health and Wellbeing, Technologies, Social Studies and Literacy.

Ricky Keroyan

Active Schools Coordinator

Gymnastics Festival at Broughton High School today

Young gymnasts from across the city will come together to showcase their skills at an exciting event at Broughton High School today. 

Jude Salmon, Active Schools Coordinator for the Broughton cluster, said:  “The first Inter City Gymnastics Festival will take place at Broughton High School this afternoon (Friday 9th December) from 2 – 4pm.  This Festival is a non competitive display event, where all Edinburgh schools who take part in extra curricular gymnastics programmes will come together to perform routines to showcase their skills.

“ActiveSchools have been working in partnership with Activcity, City of Edinburgh Gymnastics Club and Edinburgh Leisure to introduce this all inclusive event to provide a platform to encourage long term participation in gymnastics and physical activity.  The event will bring together children of all levels and abilities to perform a short routine to their friends, families and peers.”

Jude Salmon

Active SchoolsCo-ordinator

Broughton Cluster

Mobile:07884235111

Email: jude.salmon@ea.edin.sch.uk