Leeds Rhinos Ambassador School Shakespeare Primary School, have recently been recognised for their efforts in using sport to increase engagement in physical activity by West Yorkshire Sport, winning the title of the best school in West Yorkshire for the category of ‘Pupil Engagement in Physical Activity’.
Shakespeare Primary, who are part of the Leeds Rhinos Foundation's 142 Ambassador school network across the region, will now go through to the Yorkshire finals taking place in June, where they will be pitted against schools from other regions of Yorkshire.
Since appointing Tom Hemmingway as Leader for Sport, Health and Well-being in September 2015, the number of opportunities for children to take part in extra-curricular physical activity at the school has more than doubled with provision covering a wider variety of sports and activities for a larger range of ages and abilities.
As part of this new delivery at the school, there are now more than 15 extra-curricular physical activity based clubs run each week, creating over 260 places for children to take up.
Another important aspect of the provisions is the amount of development pathways for children to excel or simply partake recreationally at local clubs once they have been engaged at school.
Children wishing to compete in inter-school competitions have also seen opportunities rise as the school took part in 33 competitions from September to March, creating 439 opportunities to take part in a variety of sports.
As a partner of Shakespeare Primary School, staff members from the Leeds Rhinos Foundation Adam Lunn and Tony Aubrey have played their part in delivering rugby provision to the Leeds-based school over the past year, playing a small part in the schools recent award.
Rhinos Foundation Community Manager, Gareth Cook said:
"We are delighted that Shakespeare Primary have been rewarded for all their hard work towards sport.
"Headteacher Julian Gorton and Tom Hemingway understand the wider benefits that physical activity can have on the pupils and Leeds Rhinos Foundation are delighted to be a small part of the overall achievement and we hope to continue our successful partnership.
"We would like to extend our congratulations to Shakespeare Primary and wish them good luck in the next round from us all at Leeds Rhinos and the Leeds Rhinos Foundation."
Tom Hemmingway added:
"We have worked really hard to use physical activity to improve the lives of young people and it is wonderful to be recognised for all of our hard work. We have many partners who contribute towards this success and we would like to thank them all."
If your schools would like to get involved with Leeds Rhinos please email Gareth.cook@leedsrhinosfoundation.org