After successfully navigating their qualifying rounds, eight schools made it to the Gloucestershire Primary Panathlon finals at Hartpury College on June 12th.
With funding from the St. James’s Place Foundation and support from Active Gloucester and the School Games, a total of 61 children had the chance to represent their schools in the final and compete across adapted sports such boccia, kurling, parachute popcorn, basketball shoot, and precision beanbag.
“This has been a fantastic day because I have a wide range of students with differing needs, yet they have all been able to access these sports,” said Anona Greening, teacher at Woodmancote School.
A total of 285 children competed this year across Gloucestershire in preliminary rounds, including one at Chipping Camden and Cirencester.
As part of the School Games competition, there were eight leaders on hand from Hartpury College who had been trained in Primary Panathlon activity earlier in the year.
Furthermore, six volunteers from the St. James’s Place Foundation were on hand to give coaching points and support whilst officiating the various sports.
Ashleegh Egan, teacher at St James School, said: “I wanted to say a thank you to all of the volunteers who ran the stations today. They were extremely enthusiastic and brilliant with my students. I’ve had excellent feedback from the children who have thoroughly enjoyed their day and keep asking when the next one is!”
After a thrilling morning’s competition, followed by relay races after lunch, a huge congratulations must go Glenthorpe School who performed brilliantly all day, winning a total of five of the nine activities.
In second place were Mitcheldean School who finished only two points ahead of bronze medalists St. James & Ebrington.
Panathlon look forward to growing these opportunities in Gloucester next year, providing even more children with the chance to compete and socialise in a vibrant atmosphere.
See a few action shots from the day in the photo gallery below. Thank you to Kirsty Dunleavy at Active Gloucester and to our funders the St. James’s Place Foundation and Sainsbury’s School Games.
