Arlies is a 'Platinum Kitemark' School!

 School Games Platinum Kitemark
September 2018

Arlies Primary School in Stalybridge is celebrating after being recognised for its commitment to competitive sport by achieving the prestigious Platinum School Games Mark award.  This follows the school’s four consecutive years of achieving the Gold School Games Kitemark which meant that the school were eligible for the prestigious Platinum award.

The School Games, which is supported by National Lottery funding from Sport England, and delivered by the Youth Sport Trust, provide a unique opportunity to motivate and inspire millions of young people across the country by encouraging them to take part in competitive school sport.

The Games are made up of four levels of activity: competition in schools, between schools, at county/area level and a national event for the most talented school age athletes.

To recognise good practice schools are encouraged to apply for the Mark to celebrate their achievement and Arlies has been successful in achieving the Platinum standard.

Over the last four years, Arlies has taken part in a range of competitive sporting opportunities including successful School Games Days as well as competing in over ten different sports at Borough Level. These were traditional sports such as football, rugby and cricket as well as new sports for the children to enjoy like kool kurling. Over the course of 2018/19 we hope this will continue, as we offer our children a wide variety of sporting opportunities. 

Gareth Hughes, Arlies’ PE Coordinator said: "We are overjoyed as a school to achieve the Platinum standard which only ten schools across the borough have currently achieved .  A huge amount of credit has to go to the children who have enjoyed and embraced a wide range of new sports. The commitment and enthusiasm that they have demonstrated in a wide variety of different sports has been nothing short of amazing over the past year. We now look to the next challenge in school and hope that this year our children can surpass the achievements of 2017/18 as we look to compete in, and enjoy, as many different sports as possible." 

Headteacher, Lucy Hughes went on to say:"Our school feels that it is incredibly important that we offer all of our children a variety of different opportunities throughout the curriculum. Sport is a huge part of this so it is a fantastic achievement to have worked so hard towards, and achieved the Platinum Kitemark after many years of commitment to PE both in school and in Borough competitions.”

The Tameside Schools Sports Partnership, who organise and run all of the sporting competitions in Tameside, also stated that: "Arlies Primary School are one of the most committed and sporty primary schools we have in Tameside. They will be at every sporting event with their pupils- whether that's a competition, a festival or training for young leaders. They are an active member of the School Sports Partnership with staff attending the networking sessions to keep up to date with all current plans/ schemes etc.

Last academic year they achieved the Platinum school games mark after receiving Gold for several years. This accolade has only been achieved by 10 schools in the borough. This shows their passion, dedication and development for school sport and PE."