Thursday 15^th May 2025 – We had a fun morning today at Courtlands with an exclusive event for our PSSP special schools. 2 teams from Cann Bridge and 2 from Courtlands took part in a New Age Kurling event aimed at building confidence, learning new skills and fostering social connections. Played in it's original form, New Age Kurling is a target-based sport that has been adapted from curling so that it can be played indoors, on a flat surface. Each player delivers a ‘stone’ towards the target at the other end by sliding it smoothly across the floor. The score is then determined by the number of stones closest to the centre of the target. To ease us all in to the event, we played against the other team from our own school to start with and then mixed things up throughout the morning so that we had the chance to play everyone else as well. It soon became clear that we had some hidden talent amongst our children with many succeeding in landing their stone right on the centre of the target – we all cheered each time it happened so the hall was buzzing with excitement. Before we knew it the morning had flown by. I had such a great time and I really hope everyone who took part today or supported their children did too. Thank you to Courtlands for hosting the event. I am already looking forward to our next PSSP Inclusion event – check out the website to see what it coming up.

Claire Cormack

Plymouth School Sports Partnership - PE Specialist Teacher

On Wednesday 21st May 7 schools attended the Life Centre to take part in the PSSP Dance Festival. This year we had 20 routines polished and ready to perform, all linking to this years show these being 'Around the world'. The schools interpreted the theme in various different ways, celebrating different countries and culture and portraying events happing around the world.

The pupils had been working so hard on their routines, with many starting back in October! 

On the day, they learnt the opening routine, taught by the wonderful Dance Leaders from Notre Dame and Plympton Academy. Prior to the event, the leaders were trained and learnt the principles of dance, choreography, leadership and adaptability when working with primary pupils. They then created the pieces of dance which they taught to the schools at the festival. 

Despite a technical delay, all pupils remained calm, professional and quiet; representing their schools impeccably. They all smashed their routines and the smiles on their faces whilst performing was amazing. For many, it was their first time performing in front of an audience, but you wouldn't have been able to tell! 

The atmosphere was electric as the children came on in their groups for the final bow. A huge well done to everyone and a BIG thank you to staff and Dance leaders for making the performance run so smoothly. 

We look forward to seeing what next years festival will bring! 

Wednesday 7th May 2025 – Today was our penultimate PSSP Secondary & Special Schools Football event for this academic year.

Tuesday 29th April 2025 – Today our team of Sports Leaders from Plympton Academy hosted 4 teams of children from our local primary schools. Chaddlewood and Plympton St. Maurice both sent along 2 teams, consisting of children from Foundation, Y1 and Y2 to take part in our friendly (yet competitive) Multi Skills Festival. Lots of excited (and slightly nervous) children took over our sports hall to try numerous activities and hopefully have a lot of fun. The activities range from tests of skill and accuracy with the Bean Bag Throw; team events such as a Sprint Relay and Ladder Relay; speed and agility with the Speed Bounce and even a test of strength with the Chest Push challenge. There were so many smiling faces in the hall this morning, it was fantastic to see so many children enjoying being physically active and challenged. I would like to say a huge thank you to our leaders – you really made the children feel welcome and enjoy all of the events – nothing but smiles and red faces. At the end of the event, the scores were all collated and the results announced… Congratulations to ‘Chaddlewood A’ team who were the overall winners today and ‘Plympton St. Maurice B’ who were very close runners up. Well done to everyone who took part today, we really hope you enjoyed it and would be keen to come back again. 

Above: Sports Leaders from Plympton Academy.

Mrs Cormack 

PE Specialist Teacher for Plympton Academy & Plymouth School Sports Partnership 

On Thursday 24^th April 11 schools came to take part in the PSSP Cheerleading festival. The afternoon started with pupils learning Cheerleading motions and putting these into a game of Simon Says. They were then partnered up with another school to take part in a carousel of six different stations. These involved learning how to safely and effectively complete different team stunts, tumbles and jumps.

The children did so well; determined to try their best and take on the challenge of each station. Many pupils had never taken part in a cheerleading session before but after a show of hands, lots would want to do it again! One person even said 'I was really nervous to come today but then everyone helped me and I really like it!'

To finish, each group learnt a short pom routine, bringing together some of what they had learnt throughout the afternoon. 

Each station was led by the wonderful Cheerleading leaders from DHSG, who were AMAZING! They were enthusiastic, patient and so supportive not only to the children, but to each other as well. A huge thank you to Miss Bradley for training them prior to the event, and for all your support organising the event. 

We can't wait to see what next year will bring, make sure to book onto this event early as it's really popular!

Today was our first Inclusive Sports Festival for Secondary age students with SEND in mainstream and special schools.