Parkside Secondary School ‘punching above their weight’ (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Parkside Secondary School ‘punching above their weight’

1:13pm Thursday 30th June 2011 in School Sports By Tom Scargill

Youngsters at Parkside Secondary School have been busy teaching other kids a few lessons recently.

While their under-14s and under-16s netball teams won the Bradford Schools League (the under-14s defending their title), their under-13 athletics squads reached the regional finals of the English Schools Track and Field Cup.

As well as the under-14s, the under-tens netball side also won their league, while the under-12s and under-15s finished runners-up in their respective competitions.

PE teacher Janice Jordan said the success on the court stems from a mutual enthusiasm from students and teachers at the Culling-worth school.

“We only have one sports hall so we have to have three or four age groups training at once but all the kids are very committed. We enjoy teaching them and it rubs off on the kids.”

In athletics, both the junior girls and boys teams qualified from the local round of the national schools cup, which featured 32 schools from across Yorkshire at Thornes Park Stadium in Wakefield last month.

They returned there for the regional finals, where the under-13 girls finished sixth and the boys seventh. Head of Girls PE Helen Mayho said reaching the regional round was an achievement in itself due to the high standard of competition.

“Not all schools enter it as it’s quite tough. We take 12 athletes and they all have to do more than one event.

“We’ve qualified several times into the regional round with at least one team but we have not made the finals before.”

Mayho said the school is ambitious when it comes to sport and that setting the bar high can bring out the best in the students.

“I think we are punching above our weight as we were competing against independent schools (in athletics) but the whole PE department is very strong, we all pull together.

“We’re there to encourage the students and they thrive on that. It’s very much a team effort.

“We’re not one ourselves but we often beat sports colleges. We don’t look to advance locally but regionally and we set our sights high.

“If you reach for the stars and fall short then you’ve still gone pretty far.

“It’s very pleasing for us as we give up our free time and there are events going on most evenings, so it’s nice to get rewarded when things go well.”