UPPER Wharfedale School in Threshfield has been awarded the prestigious Sportsmark Award for the quality of its physical education and sports programme.

The awards are made annually by Sport England to schools throughout the country which show a commitment to developing sport to a high level in partnership with their local community.

Upper Wharfedale School is only the second school in the Craven area to be awarded the status, the other being Settle Middle School.

Nationally 63 schools were awarded Sportsmark Gold and 443 the Sportsmark Status.

Gareth Pritchard, head of PE, said the school's sports department, including Helen Mukherjee and Barbara Kerr, was thrilled with the award, which was a tremendous achievement for a rural school with only 285 pupils.

A spokesperson for Sportsmark said: "Each pupil receives a minimum of two hours physical education per week throughout their five years at Upper Wharfedale School and this is at a time when a lot of schools are reducing their allocated time.

"Upper Wharfedale runs a thriving inter-form and inter-house programme as well as competitive inter-schools games in most of the major sports. Figures produced showed that almost 60 per cent of pupils regularly participated in extra-curricular sporting activities throughout the year 1998-1999."

The school also provides sporting opportunities for local primary schools and is developing a programme to help primary teachers in the delivery of PE.

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