The end of a busy, but a brilliant year! After having two years with very little sport and competition, it’s been great to get back to some normality this year, seeing more and more children active and having the opportunity to represent our school. The term started with the Year 5/6 cricket tournament. This gave many of our children the opportunity to play a new sport with only having one player who had played the sport competitively. Even though this was the case, our team improved game by game, scoring more and more runs with an increased understanding of the sport.

The following week, it was time for the Inspire+ Mini-Commonwealth Games. Year 3 and 4 were all taking part this year, representing the country of Samoa. As always, it was an energetic, fun filled event. Our children had the opportunity to take part in the opening ceremony before having the chance to try lots of sports and activities including; dance, athletics, team building games, boccia, meeting the stars (Jonathon Broom-Edwards and Frozen’s Elsa) and netball before finishing with American football. The day finished with the closing ceremony, including watching a football freestyler and all the children in attendance taking part in a mass dance.

Sports Day was then fast approaching, so all of our classes were busy practicing with many classes being supported by our brilliant Young Ambassadors. During this time, our Year 6 had a transition workshop with Inspire+ Sophie, supporting them with their transition into secondary school. At the start of the week of Sports Day, we had the Inspire+ mass participation event to take part in - the School of Socks! The weather did its best to stop us, but all children were able to participate in the weird and wonderful activities involved. One hundred and ninety one of our pupils were able to be physically active, making up a part of the 1,911 children that participated across 15 different schools! Sandwiched in the middle of this week was the Year 4 Tri-Golf tournament. A team of Year 4s went off to Belton Golf Club and took part in a range of golf activities and tasks, all being scored in different ways. Our team did brilliantly, encouraging each other and improving between each activity and because of this, finished a very brilliant third overall! The end of this week finished with my favourite day of the year, Sports Day. The children were brilliant, all taking part, all doing their best and most of all, all enjoying being involved in sport and activity! The children ran, jumped, cycled, threw and even bounced through the activities. Our Young Ambassadors and helpers supported the KS1 Sports Day in the morning and some Year 2 helpers supported the KS2 children in the afternoon. We were very pleased and grateful that our Sports Day was sponsored by Moy Park Farm, which included a very generous donation of a medal for all children who took part.

Our KS2 children had the chance to witness a historical sporting moment, as we were invited to support and go and watch the Commonwealth Baton Relay as it made its way through Grantham. The snake of Belmont pupils set off from school on their journey to Wyndham Park before lining the course of the relay journey. While they waited they danced and sang with Inspire+ Ambassadors and staff before the relay began. Our Year 3,4 and 5 pupils were then able to take part in some mass participation physical activity with Inspire+, including boxercise, Zumba, dancing, cricket, javelin and even a fitness workout. It was a brilliant occasion in which all of our pupils represented the school brilliantly.

The busy term was coming to an end and all that was left now was our Belmont Sport Personality of the Year Awards evening. This presentation night gives us a real opportunity to celebrate our year of school sport. We celebrated footballers, cricketers, rounders players, our New Age Kurling team, cross country runners and netballers. Our two football teams - our girls and our mixed team - were awarded extra rewards for Manager’s player, player’s player and most improved player. Roxy won player's player for both the girl's and mixed teams. The most improved player was awarded to Freya for the girl's and Oskar for the mixed. The Manager’s player of the year was awarded to Jacob for the mixed team and Sophie for the girl’s. Netball had similar awards to be rewarded as extra, with Lauren winning player’s player, coach’s player Eloise and most improved player, Teddy.

We then celebrated our Young Ambassadors, who have, yet again, done an absolutely fantastic job all year. They have promoted sport throughout the year and supported our school in becoming more active. Due to the work of this team, but also the work of staff, we are very proud to say that we were awarded a GOLD School Games Mark for our school PE. This is a government recognised award for school PE and sport and the highest level of achievement, prior to a platinum which requires 5 years of gold to be awarded! We are very proud of this achievement as a school.

Our penultimate award of the evening was the Walter Cobb Cup, decided by myself for someone who shows a talent and passion for sport. This year, like the upcoming sports personality, it was a tough choice, but the winner was Kodi, a very impressively talented, hard working sports performer across a wide range of sport. The evening rounded off with the main event - announcing the winner of the Sports Personality of the Year. It was a very tough decision for the KS2 children to make as they are the ones who vote for this award. In third place this year was Charlie, well-deserving of this place after a brilliant 4 years as a Young Ambassador. In second place was Roxy, again someone who really deserves this, for her commitment to being the best she can in sport. Finally, the winner of this years Belmont Sport Personality of the Year was Leah! The children recognised her fantastic achievement of winning gold, the first in my time at the school, in the Year 3/4 cross country competition.

A huge well done to everyone who received awards and an even bigger thank you to everyone for your support throughout the year to help make these events and opportunities happen. This year 60 children have represented the school in competition and 106 pupils attended a sports club, a number that increases year on year!

Have a fantastic summer holiday.

Mr Togher