THE Leadership Academy, a government initiative to promote leadership qualities in young people, is coming to the end of its first year.  Each school had to choose pupils to be young leaders within their school, their role being to advocate PE and sport and encourage increased participation. The successful students were: Yasmin White and Beth Roberts, both year 10, and Rob Smith and Damian Clarke, from year 12.

The students log their volunteered hours onto the Youth Sport Trust website and gain bronze, silver and gold certificates. As part of the end of their year assignment, our students arranged a festival for 150 year six pupils that took place at our school on Friday, July 3.

The event, which was divided into two sessions, was attended by students from Cookley and St Oswald’s in the morning and Wolverley Sebright, St Mary’s and St Catherine’s pupils in the afternoon – an overall total of 150 year six students, all of whom had to be supervised and organised by our potential “young leaders”!

The occasion was very successful; the young participants greatly enjoyed the different activities on offer and our students proved they possess excellent leadership and organisational skills.

Miss New, who oversaw the initiative, was very proud of the students’ achievements and is confident that the experience has been of great benefit to them. She said: “Organising and leading events such as this, and of course ensuring all the young pupils are safe and given the opportunity to participate in every different activity, are hugely challenging tasks. The fact that the event was so successful is a real tribute to our students’ commitment and dedication.”

Netball The year nine and year 11 netball teams played well throughout the season and they continue to develop their skills. Well done to Kady Donohue and Sophie Chilman who were voted “players’ player” this season. The year seven and eight netball teams have shown great commitment this year, regularly attending practice and matches. They showed great improvement over the weeks and have bonded well as teams.

Girls’ football The girls’ football team continues to play well.  Kady Donohue and Rachael Crompton were selected to play for the Wyre Forest district team and Kady was selected from all the players across the school as player of the district. Well done.

Boys’ football The year seven footballers went to the regional five-a-side competition in Stoke and performed really well, beating most teams and losing only to the finalists in the group stages. The boys are very talented and will be a very strong year eight team next season. They all worked hard in training and matches and have established a great team spirit which, along with their talent, will ensure much success next year.

Year nine GCSE PE short course entry This year we selected 11 gifted and talented pupils (ten boys and one girl) from year nine to be entered into GCSE short course two years early. This is a fantastic achievement for the students. The whole group really rose to the challenge and worked extremely hard all year. We look forward to receiving their results and celebrating their achievements.

Rounders The year seven and eight rounders teams managed to play a few games this half term and performed really well as a team. Unfortunately, many of the matches had to be cancelled due to bad weather but they had very good results in the games they managed to play. The year nine and year 10 teams have shown outstanding commitment and effort during the rounders season this year, regularly turning out in all weathers for after school matches. Year 10 have also arranged practise sessions and have turned themselves into a well-oiled machine. Opponents had better watch out!

Netball U15s Fifteen pupils attended regular netball practices and matches this year. They all worked very hard and their results have been most encouraging. Girls’ basketball The U16 team played superbly throughout the season. In fact, they were so good they got through to the semi finals of the county competition and played in both the Dudley and Wyre Forest leagues, with extremely good results. The U14 team also played in the Wyre Forest league and, despite very tough competition, managed to win most matches.

Boys basketball The boys competed in the Wyre Forest basketball league this season; they played some tough matches and thoroughly enjoyed the competition. They put in a strong performance and were beaten by only a few points in a couple of games. They will resume training in September and attempt to regain the title of league champions which Wolverley held in the 2007 season.

Most outstanding athletes The award for 2009 was announced in celebration assembly on the last day of the summer term, and went to Kady Donohue and Jason Wellings. Judging by the cheers that greeted the announcement, the PE department made a very popular choice!