University College Plymouth St Mark & St John

Plymouth Festival of School Sport

Over 500 Year 7, 8 & 9 pupils took part in the first Plymouth Festival of School Sport at UCP Marjon from 15 secondary schools in the City. The event was run in partnership with RELAYS (Regional Educational Legacy for Arts and Youth Sport), UCP Marjon, Plymouth City Council, and the University of Plymouth.

37 student volunteers from UCP Marjon and University of Plymouth helped out with the planning, co-ordinating and running of the event. All the pupils participated in three different activities receiving coaching from Community Sports Clubs and student coaches. Annabel Allen and Steve Donald, from Plymouth City Council Sports Development Unit provided the links with the community clubs.

Each participant went home with a certificate designed by a University of Plymouth student which included Community club details for each sport at the event. The pupils were invited to join the local clubs from their experiences at this event. With so many of the community clubs represented the aim is to help a smooth transition from school sport to community sport.

Sarah Green, Teacher at Coombe Dean said, “Today was a fantastic opportunity to give students a taste of new sports, take them outside their comfort zone and challenge them. They have really enjoyed the activities offered and will be going home, tired and happy, having had a positive sporting experience.”

The sports included were: Climbing, Street Dance, Underwater Hockey, Orienteering, Mountain Biking, Volleyball, Flag Football, Lacrosse, Table Tennis, Futsal, Trampolining, Ultimate Frisbee and Fencing. Being recognised through the Inspire programme the Plymouth Festival of School Sports was awarded the Inspire mark, making it part of London 2012 ethos. 

2012's festival will be taking place on 26^th & 27^th March

Club Day

The first Club Day was staged in the new sports centre at UCP Marjon with the 5 clubs delivering a full programme of coaching to over 150 participants. Alongside the Hockey, Basketball, Football, Volleyball and Netball coaching, families were able to take part in Climbing, Swimming and receive Sports Therapy and Health Checks. Organised by a team of UCP Marjon students as part of the RELAYS project, the pilot event proved a great success. Project coordinator Jamie Oxley said “the event had a really nice family feel to the day, everyone enjoyed experiencing a range of activities. The most popular was certainly the climbing wall with over 100 children having ago on the new indoor facility”.

The next Club Day is Sunday 15th January 

Primary School Mixed Hockey Festival 2011

‘The spirit of Hockey shines through’

The 10^th Plymouth Primary Schools Hockey Festival ‘inspired by London 2012’ and staged at UCP Marjon was hailed a big success by everyone involved. This year’s festival was organised and delivered by a team of students from UCP Marjon, University of Plymouth, local schools and the City hockey clubs. In total 59 school teams took part over the 2 days with all the players receiving coaching from UCP Marjon coaches and the opportunity to complete their hooked on hockey skills challenge award. Face painting, goal & no goal and dance offs were all added additions to action packed festival.

On the pitch, Stoke Damerel remained undefeated all day to lift the OPM HC sponsored Cup defeating local rivals Keyham Barton in the final. Horrabridge secured 3^rd defeating Compton in 4^th. In the Shield, St Andrews (Plymouth) pipped Old Priory B to the Tavistock HC sponsored Shield with Elburton coming 3^rd and Holbeton 4^th. In the PGSOB sponsored Plate, Yealmpstone Farm defeated Hooe to secure the title with St Dominics 3^rd and Whitleigh 4^th.

President of Devon Umpires, Paddy Porter praised the spirit of the event and quality of the umpiring which was undertaken by young umpires from the following schools; DHS Boys, Lipson, Ivybridge, Hele’s, Ridgeway, Sir John Hunt, St Boniface’s and University students. This year John Brown from Ridgeway was awarded the most promising young umpire award.

Skills Challenge results; Team 1^st Dobwalls, 2^nd Old Priory, 3^rd Mount Street, Individual awards; Boys 1^st George Bush (Holbeton), 2^nd Matt Baxter (Oreston), 3^rd Tyler Walsh (Dobwalls), Girls 1^st Olivia Elphic (Oakwood), Jade Ainsworth (Mount Street), Lizzie Selley (Old Priory).

Fair play winners were Blackpool Primary who entered the event for the first time. The event receives valuable support from the hosts UCP Marjon, all the local hockey clubs, Nigel Rowe (Plymouth Half Marathon), Redrok and Tony Pryce without whom the event could not take place.

The next Hockey Festival is the 31st May and 1st June!