Wednesday 12 November 2025 – Today our schools showed what stern stuff we are made of – weather warning? Pah – let’s play some Football! 6 of our PSSP schools to a chance with me on the weather today as we went ahead with our PSSP Inclusive Football event. We did get a little bit wet at times but everyone agreed afterwards that it was worth and I was thrilled to see so many smiling faces. Represented today were Bickleigh Down, Stoke Damerel, Yealmpstone Farm, College Road, St. Edward’s and Knowle. The children from these schools arrived ready and eager to get going. After a brief introduction to the rules and spirit of the competition, it was off to the pitches. Once again, I was incredibly fortunate to be supported by the fantastic sports leaders from Stoke Damerel Community College – they they referee and score all of the games but also support the children/teams and are absolutely brilliant at it! This event is a round-robin so every school gets to play all of the others. 5 points are awarded for a win, 3 points for a draw and 1 point for a loss. Once all of the games are played, the scores are collated and we present the children with their certificates (in the dry inside the main building). Congratulations to Stoke Damerel who were our overall winners today and to Yealmpstone Farm who were hot on their heals in the runners up spot. Well done to everyone who took part today and thank you to all of the adults who endured the weather so that their children could take part. Hopefully our next one will be a bit drier. Check out the PSSP website for more upcoming Inclusion events.

Mrs Claire Cormack - PE Specialist Teacher

Plymouth School Sports Partnership

Pupils from Goosewell, Whitleigh and Knowle primary schools attended the KS1 multiskills festival hosted by year 9 students from Coombe Dean school last week. The festival was based around fundamental movement skills so the children enjoyed hopping, balancing, running, throwing, catching and rolling activities.  Well done to everyone who tried so hard whilst having fun and to Coombe Dean leaders who were praised for their enthusiasm by visiting staff.

This year, we had a record number of entries for our Quicksticks events, both the non-competitive (10) and the competitive event (9). The non-competitive event was a skill-based carousel and an insight into hockey which included passing, shooting, defending and dribbling skills. This was then followed by friendly matches so the children could play against other schools. It seemed that throughout the afternoon teams developed a great understanding of the sport and created some players for the future!

Meanwhile, the competitive competition consisted of a round robin tournament with every team playing 8 games that were around 10 minutes each! The games were very close and overall, the final positionings were tight. There was some really good hockey on show and plenty of goals to be scored as well as some last ditch defending to stop goals. Overall, the winners were St. Matthews (Black) closely followed by Widey Court in 2nd place who had the same points as Compton who finished 3rd but had one more goal overall.

A huge thank you to Marjon University hockey team and Jackie Dawe from Plymouth lions Hockey club for helping on the day. And a big well done to over 150 children who took part.

Results are below.

Monday 13th October 2025 – Our Tor Bridge High Sports Leaders were back in action this morning, hosting another of our PSSP Primary Inclusion Boccia events. Prior to the event, our leaders had some training in how to lead Boccia activities – they were then joined by some other fantastic sports leaders from Cann Bridge. They worked together as a bit team and made our event a very special one. 7 schools attended with 11 teams to take part in our friendly event aimed at developing new skills and having a lot of fun. On arrival, Widey Court, Pomphlett, Holy Cross, Prince Rock, Leigham, Courtlands and Cann Bridge were welcomed and introduced to the sport by our leaders. With a little time for practice, we then dove straight in with playing some games against another team. Boccia is a Paralympic sport that is played from a seated position. It is a target game that involves accuracy and strategy and more importantly, is a lot of fun. We don’t keep any scores at these events, instead the focus is on having fun, meeting other children from different schools and developing our target skills. We play a few games and then move around so each school can play as many other children as possible. I would like to say a huge thank you to our leaders from Tor Bridge High and Cann Bridge – you were incredibly professional, the games were well-organised and all the children had a great time – thank you all. A big thank you as well to Josh (PSSP) for supporting me at todays’ event. Thank you to all the schools who attended. I hope you will be keen to come along to another event soon - Check out the PSSP website for more upcoming Inclusion events.

Claire Cormack

Plymouth School Sports Partnership PE Specialist Teacher

Wednesday 01st October 2025 - A great morning of sport today at Plympton Academy – our first (for this school year) PSSP Primary Inclusion Boccia event was hosted by 7 of our fabulous Sports Leaders. 5 schools attended with 9 teams to take part in our friendly event, aimed at developing new skills and having a lot of fun. On arrival, Prince Rock, Plympton St. Mary’s, Old Priory, Plympton St. Maurice and Cann Bridge were welcomed and introduced to the sport by our leaders. With a little time for practice, we then dove straight in with playing some games against another team. Boccia is a Paralympic sport that is played from a seated position. It is a target game that involves accuracy and strategy and more importantly, is a lot of fun. We don’t keep any scores at these events, instead the focus is on having fun, meeting other children from different schools and developing our target skills. On arrival the children often seem a little nervous but once we are underway, it is great to see so many smiling faces of children enjoying being active and learning something new. I would like to say a huge thank you to our Plympton Academy leaders – you were so welcoming and really engaged with the children. A big thank you as well to Mrs Walpole for your help this morning as well -very much appreciated. Thank you as well to all of the staff who brought their children along today – I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Check out the PSSP website for more upcoming Inclusion events.

Photo below: Sports Leaders from Plympton Academy

Claire Cormack - Plymouth School Sports Partnership

PE Specialist Teacher

Wednesday 24th September 2025 – What a glorious day for some Football! Today we have 5 schools attend in the sunshine for the first of our PSSP Inclusion Football events. Cann Bridge, Plympton Academy, Tor Bridge High, Stoke Damerel and Devonport High School for Boys all came along to take part in our friendly tournament which focuses on Teamwork, Respect and fun. We have a slightly different format that we utilise to support one player on each team: down either side of the pitch, we create a channel which means that 1 player can play unopposed and support their team from there. This works incredibly well to develop confidence and as a team tactic. Throughout the morning we use a round-robin format so that each team gets to play everyone else. 5 points are awarded for a win/ 3 points for a draw and 1 point for a loss. Once all of the matches are complete, we tally the scores, announce the results and everyone receives a well-earned certificate. I absolutely loved reading out these results today!! Huge congratulations to Cann Bridge who were our overall winners today! Tied on points with Stoke Damerel but in the end they took the win because of the total number of goals they had scored throughout the tournament. Well done to everyone who took part today, I really hope you enjoyed it and would be keen to come back. I would like to say a very special thank you to the Sports Leaders from Stoke Damerel who once again did a fantastic job at scoring and refereeing all of the matches. Check out the PSSP events calendar to see what is coming up and next and don’t forget to sign up. I will see you all at our next one.

Mrs Claire Cormack

PE Specialist Teacher

Plymouth School Sports Partnership.