Shelfield Sport's Partnership, which has Shelfield Sports and Community College, Walsall, as its hub site, was looking for an activity to deliver in the Primary schools in the Summer term. The activity had to be mixed, had to be able to be played by all ages and abilities, had to have enough skill involved to stretch the more able, had to offer training opportunities for adults and above all had to be lots of fun!
The activity that met all these criteria was Rounders, and so the Partnership embarked on a project that spanned the whole of the summer term.
We arranged a Coaching for Teachers course in March and this was well attended and received by 16 members of staff. Many of those 'rules that we're not quite sure about' were sorted out and a few we never even heard about explained! The day finished with a very gentle game amongst the staff which naturally became very competitive - two schools even had a Staff match a few weeks later!
Following this course one SSCo organised a Rounder's Awareness afternoon at a Secondary school. Year 7 and 8 pupils demonstrated a series of practices and a variety of games to an audience of Dinner Supervisors, Teachers, Classroom Assistants and parents. The afternoon was excellent and motivated those attending to go back into school and introduce structured Rounders practices and games into their schools at lunchtimes.
Each of the 6 SSCos organised a Rounders tournament for their family of Primary schools and the winners were invited to attend a Partnership Final at the Sports College. This had given 34 schools the opportunity to take part in a competition against similar schools and without having to travel too far. The better teams were then given the opportunity to match themselves against the other winners in a higher level competition. 6 schools duly met in the finals in a competition that demonstrated a high level of skill, tactical awareness and knowledge of the rules. Obviously the work done with the adults in the beginning had had a big effect. One of the SSCos had organised a transition club for year 6 pupils at the local secondary school and it was no coincidence that 8 of the winning team had attended these sessions.
St. John's Primary School from Walsall Wood won the tournament and so what next?
At the original course Alison Howard had mentioned the National Finals and was willing to allow our tournaments to act as qualifying tournaments for this event.
A coach was booked, practices were arranged against a secondary school team (which the Primary School won!), letters were sent to parents and Sportsday was rearranged!
So St. John's travelled to Rotherham full of enthusiasm and good spirits but not knowing what to expect. The coach was full of Teachers, Parents and very excited Pupils who seemed to have a never ending supply of Opal Fruits (that shows my age!) The organisers, umpires, groundstaff and not least the players all worked extremely hard to ensure the day was a fantastic success - even the rain stopped in time for the first match and the weather was fine all day.
As the games in the group stages unfolded it became clear that St. John's were going to reach the semi-finals. This was far better than we expected but exactly what the team deserved. Once into the semis the strain began to show - not on the kids but P.E. co-ordinator Andy Mills, Deputy Head Wendy Bartlett , School Sports Co-ordinator Andy Brant and the group of parents were playing every shot, catching every ball and running every rounder.
The team were victorious in the final and became National Champions. A fantastic achievement and a day that everyone involved will never forget. The journey back to Walsall was made in high spirits although one or two of the players were almost sleeping at the end - tired physically and emotionally.
For me this was the culmination of the first year's work of the Sports Partnership. All the work that went into our Rounder's Project had been topped off by a school from the Partnership becoming National Champions.
Will we putting any emphasis on Rounders next year?
You bet we will and we have already begun discussing ways to build on what we have achieved this year so that there are more opportunities for Staff and Pupils next year.
Above all else I have been most impressed with the quality of play and the level of skill shown in the tournaments. So many fundemental skills are used in the game that as a Partnership we will be advocating Rounders is taught and played across all ages in all schools.
Thanks once again to all the pupils, Staff, AOTTs, parents and the National Rounders Association who all worked so hard to make this happen.
Ian Lockett
Partnership Development Manager
Shelfield Sport's Partnership
