Arlies Primary School celebrates sporting success

A sporty school in Stalybridge has been recognised for getting pupils involved and enjoying as many activities as possible.

Arlies Primary School was shortlisted for the School Commitment to Physical Education (PE) and Sport Award at the Greater Manchester Sports Awards held at The Point Emirates, Old Trafford.

The school was representing Tameside after winning that category at the Pride of Tameside Sport and Physical Activity Awards earlier this year.

Gareth Hughes, PE co-ordinator at the school, said: “We feel incredibly proud to be recognised for the tremendous hard work that has gone on at Arlies in the last 12 months and this is reflected in our school sport’s Twitter feed (@ArliesSport).

“We place a huge emphasis on inclusion and enjoyment in PE and we enjoy celebrating our pupils’ success in our regular sports assemblies. Our aim has been to give our children as much exposure to as many different sports as possible.”

Recognised for going above and     beyond in respect to incorporating activity into their school day for their pupils and staff, the school offers a variety of sports, including boccia, ultimate frisbee, lacrosse and archery, and its dedicated PE coach helps children to achieve their goals.

Gareth added: “Our mantra is to ‘aspire to inspire.’ We encourage pupils through energetic, vibrant and inclusive PE lessons to try to be the best version of themselves. Rather than focus on ‘who won this game or match?’ or ‘who is the best?’

“We praise and reward pupils through the school games values: respect, honesty, teamwork, determination, self-belief and passion; to encourage the children to focus on enjoyment and attitude rather than who is necessarily the winner.

“This has led to all of our many after-school sports clubs being full throughout the year. We believe that we go above and beyond the basic two hours of PE a week, that schools are required to offer on the curriculum, as we offer multiple opportunities through intra and inter-school competitions, multiple after-school clubs (some of which are free) and breaktime and lunchtime sports activities run by our full-time PE coach Andy Williams, who is ably supported by our Year 5 (Y5) Sports Leaders.”

Arlies hopes to inspire the younger pupils to apply to be a sports leader when they reach Year 5. Their sports leaders’ programme was recognised at the Tameside School Sports Partnership Inspire awards held in July – where they won the leadership programme of the year award.