Pinchmill Primary School in Felmersham are celebrating after achieving the rare feat of a Platinum School Games Mark.
The school is the smallest in the county to ever receive the Platinum mark, which can only be achieved with four consecutive Schools Games Mark gold awards, which judges schools’ commitment to developing competitive sport within their community.
The School Games Mark judges schools on a number of different aspects of physical education.
These include ensuring every child gets at least one hour of ‘active minutes’ per day; quite the task for a small group of teachers and professionals at Pinchmill who monitored all 79 of their school’s students.
The judging panel also look at the effectiveness of tailoring competition based on students’ motivation, confidence and abilities, and how they support the personal development of targeted students through youth engagement and leadership.
Schools can win a bronze, silver, or gold award based on their sporting provision. Only schools who consistently reach the gold standard are eligible for a platinum prize.
The Platinum award is valid for two years.
Successful schools receive a wooden badge to pin on their School Games pennant, as well as paper and digital certificates plus a celebratory GIF for their social media channels.
Speaking to Bedford Independent, Pinchmill’s Physical Education Lead for the last five years, Matt Phelan has spoken of his pride in a school that has built towards the Platinum award from the bottom up.
“We had no PE kit, we were competing in no competitions and we were essentially ranked towards the bottom when it came to physical activity for our students” he says.
“Throughout the last five years, we’ve tailored a PE curriculum, with the primary aim of getting the kids to fall in love with PE.
“We’ve become very competitive in Bedfordshire, representing the county twice in athletics, winning multiple events in netball and scoreball and we are currently district champions in badminton.
“We’re all very proud of winning this Platinum award.”
Scoreball is a hybrid team game used primarily in PE classes, blending football, handball and basketball into a single sport.
The School Games Mark is a government-led award scheme and is judged every year, and every educational setting is eligible to be a part of it.
To find out more information, you can visit the Your School Games Mark website here. Applications for this school year are open until Wednesday, 29 July.
