Following the announcement of a partnership between Leeds Rhinos Foundation and Leeds Active Schools in October, Leeds Rhinos’ official charity have appointed two new Active School Locality Co-ordinators to start work in two local school clusters for 2017
The new offer from Active Schools and Leeds Rhinos Foundation will allow school clusters the opportunity to come together from both primary and secondary schools to create a local model focusing on curriculum PE sessions within schools, enrichment opportunities after school, competitions and teacher CPD.
Schools signing up initially for the offer in the Horsforth and the Inner East Leeds clusters will now pool their sports premium funds to create a programme of P.E, sport and Extra-Curricular delivery led by newly appointed Co-ordinators Lori Halloran and Sam Parkin.
Sam Parkin, joins Leeds Rhinos Foundation with a wealth of development experience in the community having spent 13 years at Club Doncaster Foundation and will work in the inner East Leeds area servicing six schools in January including Shakespeare Primary, Richmond Hill, St Augustine’s, All Saints, Victoria Primary and Ebor Gardens.
Also joining the Foundation full time will be former Yorkshire, Great Britain Teachers and England Ladies Rugby League representative Lori Halloran. Lori, who completed her PGCE in Physical Education in 2013, has a strong teaching background having worked at Queensbury School and will work in the Horsforth cluster with St Margaret’s, Newlaithes, West End Primary, Broadgate Primary, Westbrook Lane and Horsforth Featherbank Primary.
Both new staff members will work to meets the needs of each individual school within their cluster, inspiring children and young people to lead an active lifestyle and will be delivering out of school learning hours and competitions and providing a valuable pathway to local community clubs.
The new partnership combines the benefits of being both an Active School member and a Leeds Rhinos Foundation Partner School, which will see the schools also receive bespoke delivery offered by the charity including Winning Team, Anti-bullying and Healthy Lifestyles assemblies, Leeds Rhinos Takeover Days, in association with Caddick and Cover Structure and visits from club mascot Ronnie the Rhino.
Julian Gorton, Head Teacher at Shakespeare Primary School, who will be taking up the offer this year said:
“The Schools in Inner East Leeds are delighted to be working in partnership with Active Schools and the Rhinos Foundation in developing the new Active School Locality Co-ordinator role.
“The new role will help us achieve our ambition of all children of all ages having many opportunities to be active as well as competitive in a wide range of sports whilst at Primary school. We know active and healthy children have better attendance and achieve better at school so we can't wait for Sam to start working with children in our schools.”
Leeds Rhinos Community Manager, Gareth Cook added:
“We are delighted to welcome Sam and Lori to the team and I have no doubt they will have a huge impact in their locality. The partnership with Active Schools provides a holistic programme including, high quality PE delivery as well as staff training and local competitions for both key stages 1 and 2.
“I would like to personally thank Julian Gorton (Shakespeare Primary) and Sarah Harridge (Horsforth St Margaret’s) for their dedication and commitment to getting the model up and running and we look forward to a long and fruitful partnership.”
If you would like more information about the partnership, please email Active Schools, Strategic Lead Gail.PalmerSmeaton@leeds.gov.uk or Leeds Rhinos Foundation, Community Manager Gareth.cook@leedsrhinosfoundation.org