Between Monday 12th October and Friday 13th November, North Somerset schools were invited to take part in the NSSPEA Virtual Cross Country Challenge. At a time when we would ordinarily be running our annual school cross country championships (in non Covid times), we wanted to offer schools the opportunity to get outdoors and get active, whilst contributing to a shared objective of seeing how far we could collectively travel.

Pupils were challenged with running their age appropriate distance, with the emphasis on trying to achieve their own personal best. We highlighted the School Games values of ‘determination’, ‘self-belief’ and ‘passion’, with all of these on display across the many school events that took place.

In total, 40 schools from across North Somerset and North Bristol took up the challenge, with an incredible 8,074 pupils running their age appropriate courses. Pupils from across the full age range 4-18 participated.

Together, the participating schools in North Somerset and North Bristol covered a cumulative distance of: 6,078.4 miles

Through working together, each school/pupil that has participated in the NSSPEA Virtual Cross Country has contributed to the shared cumulative distance of 6,078.4 miles.  This would take us from Weston-super-Mare Grand Pier to Bangkok in Thailand.  This is an absolutely fantastic achievement, well done Everyone!

Often, adults have very negative memories of cross country running at school, but this challenge appears to have been really well received and brought lots of smiles to faces whilst completing the metres and miles. The focus on a personal best challenge as opposed to a traditional competition has enabled all pupils to participate at their own level and also feel like they are contributing to a wider collective goal.

A number of schools have decided to revisit the challenge across the year, encouraging pupils to build stamina and fitness, whilst looking to improve their personal best.

Well done TEAM North Somerset!

NSSPEA and School Games events postponed, but lots to keep us busy!

Whilst we are all coming to terms with a very different way of life at the moment (with everyone respecting social distancing measures in the fight against COV19), all scheduled NSSPEA and School Games for term 5 have been postponed. This decision will be kept under review and no new events will be shared until such time as Govenment guidance suggests it is appropriate to do so.

During this period of change and challenge, it is important that we all try and keep physically active, maintaining both our physical and mental well-being. A weekly bulletin ‘ Let’s Keep Busy’ Healthy Mind and Body, will be shared every Friday and will aim to keep our network updated with some of the many fun and innovative ideas that are being shared to keep us all active. As well as physical activity ideas, creative ideas will also be shared. This is in addition to the many wonderful ideas and challenges being shared by the front-line school staff and coaches working in schools.

The weekly bulletin and other useful resources will be shared via the North Somerset School Games public page: https://www.yourschoolgames.com/sgo/north-somerset/

If colleagues require any support during this period, or if you have some innovative ideas that we can share with the network, please get in touch via the normal channels.

#keepactive #staysafe #stayindoors

On Thusrday 7th March, fifteen schools teams from across North Somerset cane together to compete in the North Somerset Schools Primary High 5 Netball Finals.  The competing teams had to battle difficult weather conditions, with strong gusts of winds making passing and shooting particularly challenging.  However, this did not prevent some excellent netball being played across all six courts, with all players showing true resilience in the conditions and determination in their team play.  All players should be very proud of their efforts in representing their school teams so well!

Congratulations to St Joseph’s Catholic Primary (North Somerset Champions and gold medalists) and Golden Valley Primary (runners-up and silver medalists) for qualifying for the Level 3 Spring School Games Finals as North Somerset’s representatives.  We wish both schools all the very best at this prestigious event!  A special mention also to Wrington Primary: Small Schools Champions and bronze medalists) and Portishead Primary (bronze medalists) for making the semi-finals.

Details will be shared shortly on how players can trial for the TEAM North Somerset squad that will play TEAM South Gloucestershire in June.

If girls are keen to get involved in community netball please email nsspea@gmail.com to ask about local opportunities!

Invoices for your membership of the NSSPEA for 2018/19 have now been sent and in most cases will have gone to P.E Coordinators, please can you make sure these are forwarded to the relevant people in school to be paid.

Some schools will have received a separate invoice for 2017/18 membership as we still have a question mark on whether some of these have been paid. If your school has already paid this please let us know an invoice number and payment date.

On Saturday 24th November, 50 athletes (year 5 and 6) from 24 North Somerset Primary Schools, came together to represent TEAM North Somerset at the inter-area cross country championships at Ashton Park School.

Four age/gender races took place, with TEAM North Somerset competing against teams from South Bristol, North Bristol, Central Bristol and South Gloucestershire.  The TEAM North Somerset athletes performed admirably, tackling a challenging course with determination.  It was pleasing to see the true team spirit shown by all the North Somerset athletes and how despite attending different schools, they united as one team, wearing their TEAM North Somerset race shirts with pride.

We were delighted that all four age gender teams ran superbly to claim second place in all of the team competitions and it was wonderful to see two North Somerset athletes gain individual medals in an extremely competitive field.  All athletes should be rightly proud of their achievements in representing their schools and TEAM North Somerset at this event and each athlete deserved their participation medal for their personal effort on the day.

Welcome to our new NSSPEA website! Here you can see all the forthcoming tournaments and competitions taking place and enter your teams to take part.

As this is all completely new we do expect a few teething problems, if you are having any issues please either use the contact form on the site or contact James Marshall – schoolsportsteaching@gmail.com