What a successful 2022-23

What a successful 2022-23

Whitehall Junior School has achieved Gold School Games Award for 2022-2023.

The School Games Mark is a Government-led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward and recognise school’s engagement (provision and uptake) in the School Games against a national benchmark and to celebrate keeping young people active, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success.

We are extremely proud of our pupils for their dedication to all aspects of physical activity and school sport, including those young volunteers, leaders and officials who made our events possible. We are committed to using the School Games to try to engage those young people who have not previously been active or represented our school and to try to ensure that all our students have a positive experience and want to try out new activities beyond school too in our community. We believe in the power of physical activity and school sport as a school and give opportunities to those young people that need it most as either a participant, leader, official or volunteer.

As part of our application, we were asked to fulfil criteria in the areas linked to the five School Games outcomes and we are pleased that the hard work of everyone at our school has been rewarded this year.

School Sports Funding 2022 - 2023

At Whitehall Junior School, we view leading healthy and active lifestyles as a priority for our children and their families. The sports funding we receive each year enables us to successfully provide a diverse range of opportunities for our children to be healthy and active. Each year, we review our spending and evaluate the effectiveness of our sports provision. This analysis is then used to widen and enhance the opportunities we provide to ensure our children continue to live healthily and actively as well as learning new strategies to be healthy. The year 2022-2023, we have continued to use the funding to focus on recovery due to previous school closures as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. Our school spent the funding on: promoting healthy, active lifestyles; increasing numbers of children who participate in out of hours sports clubs when in school; using external providers to deliver adventure activities and the use of sport coaches to provide children with leadership opportunities within sport and active lunchtimes. Please see the 2022-2023 school sports funding report for a full breakdown of our expenditures for this academic year. We feel the money has been used accordingly in order to support the school to make sustainable improvements to the provision of PE and sport for the benefit of all our children.

Commonwealth Games 2022

At Whitehall Junior School, we have continued to use the power and inspiration of the 2022 Commonwealth Games to inspire our pupils in the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle and developing a life-long love of sport.  We are achieving this through assemblies, PE lessons, intra-school competitions and through extra-curricular activities, referencing the following ethos these games provided:

- Motto: Games for everyone.

- Humanity, equality and destiny in everything we do.

- Kind hearts and never quitters.

- Friendly games.

PE Lessons

At Whitehall Junior School, we view Physical Education as an extremely important part of the National Curriculum. All children are timetabled with two hours of PE every week. These sessions include both indoor and outdoor PE lessons. Throughout the academic year, children complete three dance and three gymnastics units through indoor sessions. Outdoor PE lessons provide children with the opportunity to take part in a range of invasive team games and individual sports as well as athletics. Our PE lessons teach the children the skills needed be successful in a range of sports. Every PE unit provides the children with the opportunity to practise the skills learnt in competitive scenarios. Our inclusive PE curriculum allows all children to develop communication, teamwork and leadership skills in a healthy competitive environment.

Sports Coaches

Sports coaches are a vital part of Physical Education and sport at Whitehall Junior School. They are deployed in a range of capacities to ensure children receive high quality teaching in extra-curricular sports clubs and through active play lunchtime sessions. Fully qualified coaches deliver the sports clubs at Whitehall Junior School. On a daily basis, the coaches provide regular training sessions for a wide range of sports and physical activities. We have had great feedback from the children who are currently attending these clubs and it has been great to see them benefit from these wider opportunities. Our sports coaches are also utilised during lunchtimes. Every child has the opportunity to be physically active by taking part in games led by our coaches at lunchtime and are trained as leaders in sport (as well as our trained sports ambassadors). This year we are continuing to work with Super Star Sports coaches. Our dedicated PE coordinator, who has worked alongside trained sports coaches for a number of years, will work alongside our teachers throughout the year to develop their PE teaching skills; this will involve team-teaching and observation sessions to ensure our teachers continue to deliver high quality PE lessons.

Squad Training

As well as the clubs ran by external sports coaches, a number of Whitehall staff also give up their free time to deliver squad training sessions. From these squad-training sessions, children have the opportunity to represent Whitehall in a range of inter-school competitions. These competitions consist of leagues, where matches take place on a weekly basis, and knockout tournaments.

Extra-Curricular Clubs

Between the squad-training run by Whitehall staff and the clubs delivered by our external coaches, we successfully provided our children with a huge range of opportunities to be active, enjoy sport and learn new skills. See below for the number of children who attended out of hours sports opportunities this year.

Autumn Term = 209 pupils

Spring Term = 229 pupils

Summer Term = 286 pupils

Swimming

At Whitehall, we see swimming not only as a great way to stay healthy and active, but also as a fundamental life skill. To help prepare children for life outside the classroom, we have continued to provide Year 5 children with regular intensive swimming lessons throughout the year. By enabling these pupils to complete three lots of intensive swimming lessons throughout an academic year, we hope to see an increase in the number of children who can swim 25m by the time they leave in Year 6.

2022-2023 End of KS2 swimming statistics:

What percentage of   your current Year 6 cohort swim competently, confidently and proficiently   over a distance of at least 25 metres?  N.B. Even though your   children may swim in another year please report on their attainment on   leaving primary school. = 62%

What percentage of   your current Year 6 cohort use a range of strokes effectively [for example,   front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke]? = 81%

What percentage of   your current Year 6 cohort perform safe self-rescue in different water-based   situations? = 92%

Intra-school (level 1) competitions

At Whitehall Junior School, we exploit intra-school competitions through:

- PE lessons

- Play leaders at lunchtime

- Trained pupil sports leaders leading play leader tasks at play and lunchtimes

- Whole school intra-sports competitions

- Sports day

- Activities during Health and Fitness Week and throughout the year

Health and Fitness Week and Sports Day

This year’s Health and Fitness Week took place throughout the week beginning Monday 26th June.

Please see below an outline of the activities that were planned for Health and Fitness Week.

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that was scheduled to be held in Birmingham, England from 28 July to 8 August 2022.

The Commonwealth Games’ aim is to unite the Commonwealth family through sport. They reflect The Commonwealth Games Federation’s core values of humanity, equality and destiny. The spirit of the Commonwealth Games is friendship and fair play, and they’re often referred to as the ‘friendly games’ because they bring together members of all the nations to compete on a level playing field.

Whitehall continued to use the inspiration of the 2022 Commonwealth Games to unite Whitehall through sport during Health and Fitness Week.

Our motto for the week was:

Games for Everyone

Our Values were:

Humanity, equality and destiny in everything we do

Kind hearts and never quitters

Friendly Games

Sports Day

This year’s Sports Day took place on Monday 26th June. The schedule for the day was as follows:

9.15-9.30am: Whole school long distance race to launch the day

9.30am – 10.45am: Years 3 and 4 Round Robin activities involving running, jumping and throwing tasks and Years 5 and 6 Year Group Relay Races

11.00-12.15pm: Whole school sprint races.

1.30pm – 2.50pm: Years 5 and 6 Round Robin activities involving running, jumping and throwing tasks and Years 3 and 4 Year Group Relay Races

Fitness competition

This was a class and year group intra-school competition. Each class was timetabled a session time to complete three circuits of six activities (shuttle runs (5 metres apart), sit ups, lunges, step ups, skipping and star jumps). They were active for 30 seconds on a station then they had a 30 seconds rest before moving onto the next activity of the circuit; they had a 3 minute rest before starting the next round of their circuit. The children had their own recording sheet to write their totals for each station during each circuit. Once they completed their three circuits, these totals were collected to identify the two winners from each class and the class winner per year group.

Intra-House competition

Each class was timetabled a session time to complete an intra-house competition. This involved the class completing three different games (corner football, corner handball and dodgeball, 20 minutes for each game). During each of these games, the children worked together to earn valuable points for their house. These points were collected to see which house (Colne, Chiltern, Frays, Mill) were the winners.

Climbing wall

Each class was timetabled to use the climbing wall provided by Beeline adventures to see if they could reach the top and beat personal goals.

Nerf Wars

Each Year 3-5 class was timetabled for a session of Nerf Wars, led by our Super Star Sports providers. This was a competition between teams to see who would be the overall winners.

Cricket Workshops

Each class was timetabled to complete a cricket workshop with coaches from Uxbridge Cricket Club. This also involved small scale competitions.

Health and Fitness Week: Day 1, Sports Day

Whitehall Junior School had their Sports Day on Monday 26th June and it was amazing to have so many families involved in this event again this year!  Our Sports Day combined a number of athletics events, with some healthy competition, to decide which house team would win the Sports Day trophy this year.  Despite the windy conditions throughout the day, all of our children persevered and worked hard to earn valuable points for their house team.  Not only did the children work hard to achieve their best, so did the wealth of parents / carers who volunteered to run in several parent races - thank you for your great sportsmanship and for helping to make the day extra special for all of the children.  Also, thank you to all of the families who remained with us at lunch time for a picnic on the school field; it was lovely to see so many of you join us for lunch and I know that the children enjoyed having families stay for lunch time too.  The final result was tight but Mill were the overall winners of Sports Day 2023 - congratulations, Mill House!  We are very much looking forward to the rest of Health and Fitness Week and we are certainly living up to our motto of 'Games For All'.

Health and Fitness Week: Day 2

Whitehall Junior School was full of energy completing their second day of Health and Fitness week today.  3B, 3C, 3D, 5E and 6D all participated in our climbing wall challenge; 3L, 4L, 5P and 4T completed the fitness competition; 4B, 6W, 6S and 5S all completed our intra-house competition and 6S supported the Infants School in leading their Sports Day.  It was an action packed day enjoyed by all.

Health and Fitness Week: Day 3

Whitehall Junior School was full of energy yet again completing their third day of Health and Fitness Week today.  3L, 5P, 4B, 4L and 6S all participated in our climbing wall challenge; 3B, 3D, 4T, 5S and 5P all took part in the Nerf War competition; 5E, 6D, 6W and 4B completed the fitness competition and 3C, 3B, 3D and 4T all completed our intra-house competition.  It was an action packed day enjoyed by all!

Health and Fitness Week: Day 4

On Thursday 29th June, Whitehall Junior School continued with our commitment to leading a healthy lifestyle with our fourth day of planned activities for our Health and Fitness Week.  4T, 5S, 6W and staff participated in our climbing wall challenge; 3C, 3L, 4B, 4L and 5E all took part in the Nerf War competition; 3B, 3C, 3D and 6S completed the fitness competition and 3L, 4L, 5P and 6D all completed our intra-house competition.  It was an action packed day enjoyed by all!

Health and Fitness Week: Day 5

Today was the last day of this year's Health and Fitness Week.  5E completed their intra-house competition and 5S completed their fitness competition.  As well as this, all classes across the school had a cricket workshop with a coach from Uxbridge Cricket Club.  A day, and week, that has been thoroughly enjoyed by all!

Inter-school (level 2) competitions

Netball Training and League

Miss Costa was delighted with the number of pupils who were committed to attend our weekly netball training sessions on a Monday lunchtime.  This year saw an improvement in pupils' basic skills as well as their knowledge of the game.  It was wonderful to see the improvements everyone made as well as the enthusiasm you all showed for this sport.  Each week you were set new challenges and it was wonderful to see the determination you all showed to improve further.  Those who represented the school in netball league matches this academic year played extremely well and represented the school brilliantly.

Football Training and League

Mr Jones was overwhelmed by the number of pupils who were committed to attend our weekly football training sessions on a Tuesday lunchtime.  He was delighted with the enthusiasm and determination by all who attended to further develop in their spatial awareness and specific skill development.  Those who represented the school in football league matches this year showed fantastic sportsmanship throughout and improved their performances as the league progressed.

Packham Tournament

On Saturday 19th November, we took a football team of Year 6 boys to take part in the Packham Cup Memorial Tournament, which was held at Ryefield School. This is a District tournament that has been running since 1963! The team played extremely well throughout the group matches and we are very proud of their achievements during this competition.

Sportshall Athletics

Eighteen children (nine boys and nine girls) took part in the Sportshall Athletics competition during the afternoon of Thursday 24th November (the venue was Swakeleys School).  The event was action packed with a variety of races, throwing and jumping events.  The hall was full of excited athletes determined to do the best they could in their events to win valuable points for their school.  All of our pupils performed brilliantly in their events and showed amazing sportsmanship throughput the afternoon.  We came sixth place overall from the eighteen schools that competed.  A great achievement amongst very strong competition!

Girls' Netball Rally

On Saturday 25th February, we took a team to take part in the District Girls' Netball Rally, which was held at Ryefield School.  The team played well throughout their group phase matches of the competition, beating Oak Farm B 2-0, but unfortunately, our team did not progress to the quarterfinals.  All eight girls who played did very well and we are very proud of all of their performances and great sportsmanship in their matches!  Thank you to all the parents who came and supported us during this competition.

Mixed Netball Rally

On Saturday 4th March, we took two teams to take part in the District Mixed Netball Rally, which was held at Ryefield School. Both teams played very well throughout the group phase of the competition: with Team B winning one of their three games and Team A winning two of their three games. Unfortunately, neither team progressed to the quarterfinals, with Team A only narrowly missing out on progressing to the next round of the competition on goal difference. All sixteen players performed very well and we are very proud of all of their achievements during the rally and their great sportsmanship! Thank you to all of the parents who came and supported us!

Cross Country

Congratulations to all members of our cross country team who competed at Vyners' playing fields this afternoon in extremely wet conditions. All runners completed the tough 2000m course. An extra 'well done' to Eduardo, who finished 16th out of over 90 boys and Ayat.K, who finished 22nd out of over 90 girls!

Boys' Netball Rally

On Monday 27th March, eight boys participated in this year's boys' netball rally for the Uxbridge District at Ryefield School.  They were drawn in a tough group yet they did not let this hinder their performance.  They won two games, drew a game and lost a game.  This meant that they progressed to the semi-final and played against Hillingdon A.  The standard of play that our team showed in the semi-final was very impressive yet despite this, we did not qualify to the final.  However, the team did receive bronze medals for their fantastic performance in this competition. The team showed wonderful sportsmanship throughout the tournament and there was some phenomenal shooting too.  Thank you to all of the family members who came along to support the team.

District Swimming Gala

Congratulations to the six children who competed in the District Swimming Gala last night (04/05/23). The children swam exceptionally well in the following events: Freestyle, Breaststroke, Backstroke Medley Relay and Freestyle Relay. We are extremely proud of everyone who competed. A particular well done to Aleeza for winning bronze in the individual girls' Freestyle race and Abdirahman for winning bronze in the individual boys' Backstroke race. Thank you to all the parents for coming to support your children and the school.

Quadkids Athletics Competition

Ten Year 6 pupils represented the school this afternoon at the Uxbridge District Quadkids Athletics Competition, which was held at Hillingdon Athletics Track. The children were competing against fifteen other schools in four disciplines: 75 metre sprint, 600 metre run, standing long jump and Vortex Howler throw.  We are proud to announce that we achieved third place and our team came away with bronze medals.  They modelled great sporting behaviour throughout the competition and performed exceptionally well in all disciplines.  Well done!

District Tag Rugby Competition

Whitehall Junior School hosted this year's District Tag Rugby Competition on Thursday 25th May.  In addition to hosting this event, we also had two teams representing our school.  Both teams played exceptionally well in their group matches; 'Whitehall B Team' won two of their matches and 'Whitehall A Team' won all four of their matches.  Unfortunately, only 'Whitehall A Team' progressed to the semi-final stage of the competition, where they played 'Heathrow'.  It was a tough semi-final yet Whitehall won this match and progressed to the final, where they faced 'Hillingdon A'.  It was a tense final but the team performed brilliantly and won the match and the competition!  It was an event that was enjoyed by all and congratulations to 'Whitehall A Team' for receiving gold medals and winning the trophy!

West London Games: Tag Rugby

Due to our team winning the district tag rugby competition, we went to the West London Games on Wednesday 21st June to represent Hillingdon in tag rugby at Brunel University.  The other boroughs that were represented in this competition were Brent, Hounslow, Harrow, Ealing and Hammersmith and Fulham.  Our pupils performed amazingly in all of their matches and scored some phenomenal tries.  Our team played so well that they achieved third place!  Congratulations to all that represented Whitehall in this competition!

Rounder Competition

This year’s rounders competition was due to take place on Wednesday 5th July. Due to the this being a strike day, it was rescheduled for Wednesday 12th July, which clashed with our Year 6 production and we were unable to attend this competition this year.

District Sports

This afternoon, Whitehall Junior School took 30 pupils from Years 3-6 to represent our school in this year's District Sports competition, competing against eight other schools at Hillingdon Athletics Track. Our pupils took part in either a track event, a field event or a relay race; all pupils performed amazingly throughout this competition and they modelled fantastic sportsmanship throughout. Whitehall Junior School were awarded with ten medals in total in the following disciplines:

Year 3 boys' 50M sprit, silver medal

Year 4 girls' 60M sprint, bronze medal

Year 6 boys' 80M sprint, silver medal

Year 6 girls' 600M run, silver medal

Year 6 boys' 600M run, silver medal

Year 4 boys' standing long jump, bronze medal

Year 4 girls' standing long jump, silver medal

Year 4 girls' tennis ball throw, silver medal

Year 5 girls' triple jump, bronze medal

Year 6 boys' running long jump, gold medal

Year 6 6 x 66.66M relay, bronze medal

Whitehall Junior School also achieved third place in the overall track trophy this year. Well done to all those who participated in this year's District Sports and thank you to all of the families who came and supported us!

Annual Sports’ Celebration Assembly

Congratulations to the vast numbers of pupils who were awarded with a medal today for representing the school in one or more inter-school competitions this academic year. We were overwhelmed with the sheer numbers of medals given out during this assembly! As always, we selected two pupils to be awarded with ‘sports people of the year’ trophy. Eduardo and Ayat.K were this year’s worthy winners showing how they met all of the Olympic and Commonwealth values.