West Rainton, Houghton-le-Spring DH4 6RN
It’s been a long wait for our footballers to get back to inter-school competition, so they were so excited when autumn brought about the opportunity to play in a tournament with Durham SSP.
The team kicked off their season with a narrow defeat, 1-0, but immediately bounced back with a 2-0 victory in their second match.
We were delighted to be invited by our friends at AK teaching to be the flagbearers for Sunderland AFC V Bolton in September 2021.
Nine very lucky pupils got to represent school with the full VIP treatment at the match which ended up with a victory for Sunderland.
They also got to spend an hour at The Beacon of Light, playing football themselves, which was great training for our upcoming season.
A commemorative flag, printed with our school badge, is also presented to the school as a lasting memento.
We were thrilled to receive news in July 2021 that we had successfully regained AfPE award for sport and PE provision in school, this time with DISTINCTION!
This is the highest accolade available for school sport and PE provision and the assessor was greatly impressed by our pupils’ attitude to sport and physical wellbeing.
This is a great achievement for the whole school, but a particular well done to Mr Mac who leads us in this subject area.
Every year, our pupils in Years 3- 6 have the opportunity to compete in our annual athletics’ records’ day. This builds on from the athletics unit that all of our junior classes undertake during summer term 2.
Everyone competes in seven events: 50m sprint, 600m run, long jump, triple jump, high jump, shot put and javelin.
There were no school records broken this year, but we did have four year group records broken in both boys’ and girls’ categories.
Sports’ day during covid has been a little bit different, but we’re so proud to have been able to still carry it out in 2020 and 2021.
In 2021, we had to host sports’ day in two sessions as we had some bubble closures in the summer. That way, all children still got to take part. We weren’t able to have an audience but we still kept them in touch with updates on Class Dojo.
It was a fun and very competitive day, with three out of four houses still able to claim the overall victory going into the final tug-of-war bout!
Our eventual winners were Moorhouse who were thrilled to receive the house shield. Everyone received a medal and a treat from the ice cream man for their fantastic attitudes to sport.
We are always thrilled to hear about the achievements of our pupils outside of school. On the back of our gymnastics club in school, several girls went on to attend cheerleading classes at Durham City Gymnastics Club. Six West Rainton girls were recently part of the cheer squad who came out as regional champions at a tournament held in Newcastle. They were thrilled to tell us all about it in assembly.
Keep up the great work, girls!
Spring term brings about our unit of dance in PE. This unit, for the past six years, has ended with a beautiful display of our work in a dance festival for parents and family members to come and watch.
This year, we had over 120 people in our audience as they saw all classes from nursery to Y6 demonstrate the progression expected in dance over the years.
This year, we also added in commemorative certificates for all classes, plus some merit awards for stand-out achievements:
Best Costumes- Reception (African tribal dance- Shakseti)
Most expressive performance- Year 1 (A pirate you shall be!)
Most original routine- Y4/5 (Old Town Road- Wild West/hip hop!)
It’s an event hotly anticipated in the PE calendar here at West Rainton; the annual curling tournament held in spring term.
This year, there is the added incentive of each winning pair going into a ‘champion of champions’ event, to be held at Springfield Lodge, where we will be competing against the residents!
Our Y6 pupils enjoyed a well-earned end of autumn term treat by visiting Sunderland’s outdoor ice rink. The trip, entirely funded through sport premium, was a chance for children to experience a more unusual sport and a really fun way to keep active.
We were amazed at how much their skills and confidence progressed over the session with everyone giving it a really good go.
Many pupils are going to return to the rink with their families over the Christmas holidays.
Our gymnastics club continues to go from strength to strength with our pupils challenging themselves to master new balances and jumps week on week. So much so that our coach recommended we add a tumble track to our vast range of equipment.
The new resource, funded through sports premium, allows children to confidently attempt cartwheels, back flips and summersaults within a safe environment. We could not believe how quickly they took to it!
