Health & Fitness Award

On Wednesday 12th January 2011 the school, along with other winners, attended an awards ceremony at Cardiff County Hall celebrating the success of schools in their work to promote the physical, mental and social health of their communities. Whitchurch High School received the Physical Education and Fitness Award.

Council leader Rodney Berman opened the presentation, organised by the Cardiff Healthy Schools team. The Cardiff Network of Healthy Schools was established in 1999 and is a partnership between Cardiff Achievement Service for Education and the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.  The Cardiff Network is part of the Welsh Network of Healthy School Schemes which aims to encourage the development of local projects within a national framework.

There are now 130 member schools in Cardiff which work with the Healthy Schools team and a range of partner agencies to improve the health of their communities. Coun Berman said: “The Healthy Schools awards ceremony celebrated all the outstanding work that has been achieved in our schools across Cardiff.

The Healthy Schools team and partner agencies have worked together to identify schools for outstanding work in developing a whole school approach in any one or more of the Healthy Schools action areas. Healthy Schools team leader Clare McRobbie said: “This event was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate all the hard work that schools across Cardiff have embraced, along with the Healthy Schools team and partner agencies to ensure that children and young people learn about the importance of health and well-being.”

Whitchurch High School has only formally been involved with the Healthy Schools initiative for a year and we were very proud to receive the award for outstanding work in Physical Education and Fitness.

The criteria for the award included:

• Physical Education and School Sport (PESS) work and mentoring with Primary Schools
• Sports Crew and 5x60 involvement
• Boys Dance
• Extra-curricular clubs and activities.

Eight pupils from Years 9  to  12  represented the school in receiving the award, and our ‘Young Sports Ambassadors’ Stephanie Harris and Nathan Williams gave a power-point presentation on how they had become involved in  PE and  Sport, and the values and opportunities it has presented to them.  It was a busy day for Nathan and Steph as they were also involved, along with Jessica Ballard, in a Dance performance presentation.

Huw Jones-Williams, Head teacher commented  “ We are very proud of the valued work which has been undertaken by the Physical Education department and all our school community in promoting and encouraging improved levels of fitness and wellbeing throughout the school and beyond. We are delighted that this award recognizes our sustained progress over a number of years.”