Paralympic Athlete joins us for Sports Day

July 2016

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Craig McCann with some of our trophy winners.

Our annual Sports Day took place on the last day of term with British Paralympic Wheelchair Fencer and National Paraclycling Champion, Craig McCann as special guest.

Craig, pictured centre, joined us thanks to the Sky Sports: Living for Sport programme, which has been an exciting feature of our PE provision for the past two years. As the latest in a string of visiting professional athletes, Craig's story of how he became part of Team GB, following a brain tumour which left him disabled, was an inspiration to our whole school.

Craig stayed with us for the entire event to talk to students and present individual medals to the winners throughout the course of the day. He also presented the much-coveted Sports Day trophies.

Despite soaring temperatures, our young athletes competed with great determination and sportsmanship in a number of track events from 100m sprints to 1500m and relay races. Points earned for each race were added to those gained from field events, which had taken place the day before, and excellent performances across all year groups led to the battle for the Sports Day House Trophy being closer than ever. However, at the end of a wonderful day, victory lay with the mighty Wolsey.

Whilst the final scores were being verified, students watched the customary Teacher's Race, a "multi-skill relay' this year, comprising of 200m each of egg and spoon, skipping and three-legged races, culminating in a 200m sprint to the finish line!

Overall, an excellent day was had by all, including the many spectators who turned out in force to support our athletes with the colour-coded face paint, costumes, house banners and flags that have become a King James tradition.

We would like to thank Bishop Auckland Cricket Club for their continued support in allowing us to use their facilities whilst our landscaping work is completed. This is the final stage in our redevelopment work.