Success at the Games

Over twelve hundred young people took part in the Summer Festival of the Sainsbury’s School Games in Merseyside on Friday 4th July 2014 at Wavertree Sports Park, Liverpool. Sporting Champion Charlotte Hartley, an ex England international hockey player, was also at the event to inspire the young competitors.

After a fantastic opening ceremony which was themed around the Commonwealth Games and theFootball World Cup, competitors were sent off to their sports.  Despite the wet weather which caused the cancellation of the rounders events, all teams performed well.

Teams from All Saints, Halewood Academy, Kirkby High School, Knowsley Park, Plantation, Park Brow, Holy Family Cronton,, St Laurence’s and St Joseph’s Huyton  competed against the five other boroughs of Merseyside in eight sports.

St Laurence’s won gold in tri golf, Park Brow took bronze in the mini tennis and All Saints received the spirit of the games award in the secondary tennis.

Assisting at the event were over 100 young leaders with a range of volunteering roles on site including supporting event organisers at each sport, collecting scores and officiating along with 20 media leaders on site interviewing competitors.

Sainsbury’s School Games is a unique opportunity to motivate and inspire millions of young people across the country to take part in more competitive school sport. The Games are made up of four levels of activity: starting with competition in schools (intra-competitions) between schools within a local community (inter-competitions) and then progressing to Merseyside County Finals in both Winter and Summer sport Festivals. The fourth level is a high level national demonstration of school sport delivered by National Governing Bodies of Sport for those on talent pathways.

In Merseyside the Merseyside Operations Group is responsible for hosting high quality county finals connected to school sport at a local level. As a result a Winter and Summer Festival now take place annually to cater for the seasonality of sports and offer a wider range of inclusive competitive opportunities for young people.