Four Primary schools from Leeds took part in a High Five girl’s netball competition last week as part of a Leeds Rhinos Foundation endeavour to offer primary school girls of all abilities more chance to take part in sporting competitions throughout the year
Four primary schools from the Armley area played out their “Hi Five” girl’s netball competition at Swallow Hill Community College, overseen by Leeds Rhinos Foundation Cluster Lead Officer Richard Cattley.
‘Hi Five’ Netball is a version of the sport promoted by the All England Netball Association aimed at 9- to 11-year-old girls, including only five positions as opposed to the normal 7. The version is designed to encourage inclusion, as players swap positions during the game and when not on the court are expected to help the game in some other way, such as being the timekeeper or scorekeeper.
The original plan for last week’s tournament was for 6 schools to attend, however the recent bad weather resulted in two schools having to drop out due to travel complications, leaving Holy Family, St Bart’s, Whingate and Castleton to take part in the event.
Each school took part in matches against each other in a round robin format with sports leaders from Swallow Hill Community College once again, on hand to assist in the running of the event, taking up the roles of umpires for the evening.
The event was a great success with nearly 40 girls taking part despite the loss of two schools unable to travel and Mrs Williams from Holy Family School praised the effort of the sports leaders in particular for their involvement:
“They’re doing a great job, it can be hard policing which player can go in each third of the court but they seem to know the rules very well. It’s great to see the same leaders at each event, it helps make the tournaments more familiar for staff and students.”
The tournament was one that helps to supplement the events that occur on a city wide basis, ran by the Leeds Rhinos Foundation’ cluster lead officer Richard Cattley, who has organised tournaments in a number of different sports already this academic year:
“There are some sports events that take part on a city wide basis such as ‘Hi Five’ netball and sports hall athletics. If schools do well in these events they progress to the next stage. Unfortunately if you don’t progress then you may not get a chance to take part in that sport again.
“That is why we have created these events on a cluster level, so that the students can have either practice leading up to a city event or have another chance to take part in that particular sport.” Richard added.
The Armley cluster has enjoyed a busy half term with sports events running every week which comes to a close next week with a first round of sports hall athletics, held once again at Swallow Hill Community College.
For more information on the Leeds Rhinos Partner Schools scheme visit the website at: http://www.leedsrugbyfoundation.org/sport/partner-schools.php
Or e-mail: jonny.wainhouse@leedsrugbyfoundation.org