Primary school pupils from across Suffolk, Essex and Hertfordshire came together in Great Dunmow today for the East of England Primary Panathlon.
This inter-county Panathlon competition saw 72 competitors from nine schools compete at the Great Dunmow Leisure centre for the right to be crowned Regional Champions.
The Champions of Suffolk, Gusford Primary of Ipswich emerged as the overall winners after the 9 events, thus adding a Regional title to their county success. Douecroft of Colchester in Essex were runners up with a second Suffolk school Chilton of Stowmarket narrowly taking third place ahead of Columbus school of Chelmsford in 4th.
Phillippa Headlam, lead teacher of winning Gusford School said, “It is such an honour to represent the county, the children don’t get much opportunity to represent the school so doing this and also the county is fantastic. The children love this event and are thrilled to have won and we can’t wait to return to school to show them our success”
The final overall scores were-
Samantha Sheeran, the lead teacher of 3rd placed Chilton School said, “We have never have gone out of Suffolk before, so this has been a big adventure for the children. Finishing 3rd caps it off. We can’t wait to do more with Panathlon competitions in the future.”
Marshall Farrell, a student from Chilton School said, “We love Panathlon as it provides us with different sports to play. It also gives us the opportunity to do exercise , which is very important.”
Great Baddow High School again supported the event with their leadership Academy, students running the 9 sports on the day, pictured here on the left.
Special thanks to Great Dunmow 1 Life and Active Essex and also Emma Holloway Foundation for continued support and additionally the Suffolk Community Foundation supporting the Suffolk teams.