Annual School Football Festival kicks off

One of the biggest school football festivals in the country takes place this week as almost a thousand youngsters from across the district take to the field.

The Bradford District Schools 5 v 5 Football Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary this year at the start of a big week for football in the district.

The tournament kicks off today at Keighley’s Marley Activities and Coaching Centre.

There will be 120 teams of boys and girls between the ages of eight and 14 taking part in the festival.

The event, organised by Bradford Council’s Sport & Culture Service is for the first time supported by Bradford based Square Apple Café.

Bradford Council’s assistant director of sport and culture Phil Barker said: “Primary and secondary school pupils from all over the district will be taking part in this five-a-side festival and I hope friends and relatives will go along and give them some support.

“It is important that young people are provided with enjoyable opportunities to take part in physical activity and sport.

“It is a big sporting week with Bradford City going for promotion on Saturday in the league one play off final against Millwall. We hope everyone at the five-a-side festival can take inspiration from the Bantams and give it their all.”

All members of the winning and runner-up squads in each of the six age groups ( from under nines up to under 14s) will receive a leather football and commemorative t-shirt respectively. Every participant at the event will also receive an attendance certificate.

Dixons Kings Academy named as Enterprise Challenge Winners

A team of young entrepreneurs from Dixons Kings Academy has won the regional final of an enterprise contest.

The pupils won the Yorkshire Final of the 2017 Enterprise Challenge competition for the second year in a row.

It is run by Mosaic, The Prince of Wales’ mentoring charity, and part of The Prince’s Trust.

Team ‘ElektroFit’ beat competition from other school teams across West Yorkshire with their idea for a sustainable business that promotes student fitness, and converting that energy into electricity.

The competing teams pitched their ideas in a Dragons’ Den-style event to a prestigious panel of judges including Martin Richardson, Director of Operations at Leeds Building Society.

ElektroFit will now progress to the Grand Final in London on May 17 where they will compete against winning schools from the North West, South East, London, West Midlands and Scotland for the chance to become national champions.

The winning team will win a prize of £2,500 for their school and a further £500 to invest in developing their business idea and making it a commercial reality.

Twitter: @DixonsKings

Over 1000 young people to take part in the February Bradford Winter School Games 2017

Pupils playing basketball in The Bradford Winter School Gams

The Bradford Winter School Games finals day will involve approximately 1000 young athletes from across Bradford, competing to be crowned Bradford Schools Champions as well as securing team places for the West Yorkshire Finals.

Bradford School Games Organisers from across the district are delighted to be hosting the second Bradford Winter School Games finals on Friday 17^th February 2017 at Hanson Academy, Goals Soccer Centre and Pulse Health and Fitness.

This event forms part of the National School Games Programme – a unique opportunity to motivate and inspire millions of young people across the country to take part in more competitive school sport.

The Bradford Winter School Games sees the culmination of last terms district School Games events for Primary Schools, Secondary Schools and Special Schools in Athletics, Basketball, Boccia, Football, Netball, Quick Sticks Hockey and Table Tennis.

The local qualifying events held in the 5 school games areas across Bradford so far have already engaged hundreds of schools and over 5000 young people.

The Bradford Winter School Games will be supported by a number of partners including; Sports Hall Associates, Bradford Dragons Basketball Club, Rebels Netball Club, Bradford Hockey Club, The Bradford Bulls Foundation, Bradford City FC Community, Table Tennis England, Bradford City FC and Jamie’s Ministry of Food.

It will be a great spectacle highlighting the talent and dedication of young people from across Bradford.

Richard Woods, Principal, Hanson School, ‘We are proud to offer our fantastic facilities to host the Bradford Winter Games 2017. PE and the School Games is an integral part of our school so we are excited to welcome some of the most talented young athletes from across Bradford to compete in the finals.  We recognise the hard work put in by school staff, parents and athletes in reaching this stage so take pleasure in being able to offer our facilities and support to ensure the games are once again a huge success.’

Opening the Bradford Winter School Games is former England and Great Britain Rugby League Captain, and Leeds Rhinos and Bradford Bulls Rugby League legend Jamie Peacock MBE.

Following on from this event, successful teams and individuals will then take place in the West Yorkshire Finals primarily at Leeds Beckett Campus on Saturday 25^th March 2017.

Follow us on Twitter @HansonSGO

 

Hanson Academy School Games Partnership U9 Open Football League Success

Joining us this week to talk about the recent School Games Partnership U9 Open Football League Tournament is Jack Summers who organises the event.

The start of the 2016/17 competition calendar saw fourteen teams from twelve different Primary Schools in the Hanson Academy Partnership compete in the U9 Open Football League at Goals Soccer Centre, Bradford.

The freshly laid pitches at Goals and the bright sunny weather perfectly set up the first round of games.

Over the following weeks over 150 boys and girls competed to qualify for the Partnership Finals.  However, a big part of our competition relates to the cultural aspects of the School Games so while ultimately the players are committed to winning they are also tasked with displaying one of the six School Games Values.

The Value on show for the U9 Football was PASSION.

All the teams were a credit to their school and should be extremely proud of their efforts.

After two tightly contested leagues five teams qualified for the overall finals.

The finals were closer than could have been anticipated with three teams finishing in joint third place.

The overall standings were: (1) Thackley Primary School (2) Low Ash Primary School (3) Cavendish Primary School (3) Rainbow Primary School (3) Wellington Primary School.

Congratulations and Well Done to Thackley and Low Ash who, as a result of finishing 1^st and 2^nd respectively, have qualified for the Bradford Summer Games in 2017.

To round off what was a fantastic event, the final teams and the Young Ambassadors from Hanson Academy came together for a group photo and even embraced the Dab!

You can find more of the action, see future events and check out the fantastic work going on in the other School Games Partnerships across Bradford by checking out the following twitter feeds:

@HansonSGO, @OakbankSGO, @BecSchCommunity, @WestBradSG, @BfdSchoolGames

Participating Schools: High Crags Academy, St. Francis Catholic Primary School, Killinghall Primary School, Thackley Primary School, Wellington Primary School, Lapage Primary School, Fagley Primary School, Low Ash Primary School (3 teams), Cavendish Primary School, Westbourne Primary School, Westminster Primary School and Rainbow Primary School.