A NORTH East school has received a national award for its commitment to sports and physical education.
Staff and pupils at Whitworth Park Academy, in Spennymoor, are celebrating after receiving the Association for Physical Education (afPE) Quality Mark with Distinction.
The charity promotes high-quality physical education in schools across the United Kingdom, and its Quality Mark award recognises schools that “demonstrated outstanding commitment to improvement in Physical Education, School Sport, and Physical Activity”.
Teacher Kate Turnbull, who became Head of PE at the Advance Learning Partnership school in 2018, said: “We’re really proud to get this award, because we’ve always believed in our team.
“It’s really important to us that the children see how passionate we as teachers are about sport and fitness, and I think this awards really does demonstrate our commitment.
“Physical education is a really key part of our culture here at Whitworth Park. It’s wonderful that we have former PE teachers forming part of our senior leadership teams – including our head teacher, Stuart Dixon.
“The school and the trust really value physical education. Its benefit on our children is seen and appreciated, and they support us accordingly.”
The school has been working towards the Quality Mark for more than a year. Key to its success was its approach to inclusivity in PE.
“Not everyone likes PE,” explained Kate, “but we’re dedicated to finding more ways to include everyone – for example, sometimes that might be by having students participate by refereeing games rather than competing.
“As long as they’re physically active, engaged, and aspiring to something, we’re satisfied.”
The school’s sports leaders programme, which fosters qualities like leadership in young people, was also a factor in securing the accolade.
Pupil Lucy Priestley became a sports leader in Year 7. She said: “The school really deserves this.
“It’s not just about sport – we learn to work together as a team, and become better at communicating, and other skills, and that helps me in other parts of life.”
