Sport @ Clifton: 2021 - 2022

 The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games: One year to go!

        

The Commonwealth Games take place every four years - and, in 2022 they will be happening in Birmingham.  The Commonwealth is a collection of countries that are linked in some way to Great Britain, all apart from Mozambique. Almost one in every three people in the whole world live in the Commonwealth, and it is made up of people of all faiths, races, languages, cultures and traditions. 

Many years ago, Britain used to control lots of countries as part of The British Empire. Over the years, the Empire has disappeared as countries have taken charge of themselves, and so The British Empire has reformed and changed to become the Commonwealth. All 53 members have signed up to a set of values including democracy, gender equality and international peace and security. The Queen is head of the Commonwealth - and this is the reason that she officially opens the Commonwealth Games at the Opening Ceremony.

The event was first held in Hamilton, Canada in 1930, when 11 countries sent a total of 400 athletes to take part. Fast-forward to the last games held on the Gold Coast in Australia and more than 4,500 athletes from 71 nations competed in 17 sports over 11 days. So you can see how much the games have grown since they started. The sports include archery, athletics (track and field), badminton, basketball, boxing, cricket, cycling, diving, fencing, gymnastics, field hockey, judo, rugby, rowing, squash, swimming, table tennis, triathlon, weight lifting, and wrestling. Most of the sports have both men’s and women’s events. These are the first 

Find out more about the Commonwealth by clicking on the picture below:

 

 

In order to begin the countdown to the opening ceremony, three hundred drones lit up Birmingham’s night sky this morning to mark one year until our city hosts the Commonwealth Games.

They created stunning shapes amongst the stars - including Birmingham’s iconic bull mascot, a basketball hoop and also the Games’ logo.

As well celebrating the 12-month countdown, the drones are also expected to be used in next year’s opening ceremony. Watch the video below:

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 As with all major sporting events, there is a Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Mascot called Perry. Lots of children across the West Midlands sent in ideas for the games' mascot. The mascot had to reflect the identity, heritage and culture of Birmingham and the West Midlands. Meet Perry in the video below:

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 Throughout the year in school, we will be counting down to the games by having a go at some commonwealth sports in our house competitions and learning more about the countries and athletes that will be competing. We can't wait!

Eagles Class Begin their Young Leader Training: 21st September 2021

The children in Year 5/6 have begun their this week. Over the course of 6 weeks, they will develop their understanding of leadership and learn lots of activities that they can begin to lead in school. This week's session was all about COMMUNICATION. The fist challenge was to describe a picture on a card to their partner and their partner had to draw it based just on the instructions given. 

It was tricky because I could not see the card so I had to rely on clear instructions from my partner. We got quite close so that tells me that there was good communication between us!

      

      

After that, the leaders were out into teams and given an activity to explore. They had to learn the game, as well as think about how to make it easier and harder. Once they were experts, they then had to teach that game to another group successfully. This was another test of their communication skills.

Teaching another group our game meant that we had to know what we were doing beforehand. We had to make sure everyone in the group had agreed how we were going to teach the game and also think about what might be challenges that would stop the session being successful. We did great and the other team had lots of fun!

      

      

      

      

It was a fantastic session with lots of superb leading on display. Well done Eagles!

Year 5/6 Cluster Football Tournament: 18th October  2021

A team from Eagles class represented Clifton at the cluster football tournament on Monday 18th October.  We were so excited as it had been the first tournament that we had gone to in such a long time. There were 8 different schools at the tournament and we had to play matches against each team.

Our first match was against Astley. It was a close and slightly nervy match which we won 1-0. This win did so much for our confidence! Our second match was against Hallow and we also won this 1-0. Our next series of matches against Broadheath, Martley and Grimley were very tough. We drew or lost these games despite scoring goals in all of them. We stayed determined as we went into our final match against Abberley. Within the first few seconds, Jack had scored an impressive goal which got us off to a good start. We kept up the pressure and Harry scored our next goal. Then just before the end of the match, Jack scored our third from the half way line! 

When all the matches had been played we waited to find out where we had come in the tournament and it was announced that we came joint third overall with Broadheath coming first. Overall, we are very proud of how we played, our sportsmanship and how we played positively all the way through. Thank you to Mrs Coleman and the young leaders at Chantry for organising the tournament!

       

      

    

Written by the Clifton Football Team

Eagles Class Continue their Young Leader Training: 18th October 2021

The Eagles Young Leader training is nearly over and after many sessions, the children are getting ready to teach their session to the Year 1/2 children. In today's session, they began discussing and planning their session and then tested out their ideas in practise by setting up their activity and seeing if any changes needed to be made. 

        

        

The next task for the leaders is to complete a written exam and then complete their teaching session in order for them to pass the training. Good luck Eagles!

School Marathon Challenge: 20th October 2021

As you know, over the last two weeks the whole school has been taking part in the school marathon challenge where all of the children have ran or walked 2.6 miles. After doing so well last week in their classes, our big event was scheduled for Wednesday – when the rain came down more than it has all term! The Action Squad, who organised the event, were not going to let bad weather stand in the way of the challenge and the event was swiftly rescheduled to the afternoon.

The children did amazingly in completing the final 1.6 miles and demonstrated brilliant teamwork and support when cheering each other on. We are so proud to have taken part in this challenge and it was wonderful to have all of the school together, working on the same goal. Well done children!

          

          

Eagles Class Complete their Young Leader Training: 5th November 2021

After many weeks of training, it was time for the Young Leaders to undertake their final assessment to showcase all that they had learnt since the start of the programme. After completing a written exam (which they all passed with flying colours) The practical assessment was to plan and teach a 15 minutes session to a group of children from Year 1 and 2. Their session had to include a warm up, an activity that could be made easier or harder and a cool down to finish. This session went really well and the children in Year 1 and 2 gave all the activities a big 'thumbs up!'

       

       

       

The Young Leaders are now all awaiting the results of their assessments to see if they can become full fledged sports leaders in school. Good Luck to you all!

Girls' Football Tournament: 8th November 2021

An excited team from KS2 were selected to compete in the annual Bex Lloyd Girls' Football tournament on Monday 8th November. Rebecca Lloyd was a pupil at Chantry who, because of her amazing football skills, now plays for Birmingham Ladies and also for England Ladies too. To help more girls enjoy the sport, the schools in the cluster play for the Bex Lloyd trophy every year. We were all very excited because, for many of us, it was the first time that we had represented Clifton in a football tournament. 

We Played 7 matches overall against the other schools in the Chantry cluster with lots of goals scored. Our top goal scorers were Isabelle and Jude. There was lots of fantastic football skills on show throughout the tournament: Grace and Freya were superb in goal; Felicity and Alice were brilliant in defense and there was some excellent work in the midfield by Amelia. Esme and Charlotte. 

       

       

After all of the matches, the teams gathered together to find out their placings. We were thrilled to find out that we had come fourth overall with Grimley winning the tournament trophy. Thank you to all of the young leaders and Mrs Coleman at Chantry for organising the event - we can't wait to play again!

     

Report written by The Girls' Football Team 

Young Adventurers Club: November - December 2021 

   

For the last 6 weeks, every Friday, a group of intrepid adventurers from across KS2 have been attending the Young Adventurers club. Run by Mr Allen from AYOS, across the 6 weeks, the club members have been learning skills such as: orienteering, fire building, bushcrafts, den building and archery. Here are some pictures of their adventures

        

        

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Here are the thoughts of some of the club members after the six weeks:

I loved just simply being outdoors with nature. I think that I got braver as I tried lots of new things.

My favourite session was building and lighting our own fires with fire lighters. 

I enjoyed all of the sessions. It has helped me to listen to others more and also to not be afraid to take risks. I was very proud of my scores in archery.

Thank you Mr Allen for running Young Adventurers. I have looked forward to it every Friday as I love being outdoors because I think I learn better. 

Cooking the marshmellows on our own fires was brilliant; I will never forget it!

 Young Adventurers will return in February 2022!

Whole School Santa Dash: 10th December 2021

                                   

The whole of Clifton school took part in the annual School Games Virtual Santa Dash in order to get into the Christmas spirit! The children came to school as christmassy as they could and dashed around the playground for 15 minutes:  they trotted like reindeer, strolled like Santa, skipped like Elves, stomped like snowman and even star jumped like twinkling stars! It was a great event with some superb Christmas jumpers on show. Well done everyone!

      

      

      

      

Eagles' and Year 4 Bikeability Week: 4th April - 8th April 2022

This week, Eagles and the children in Year 4 have been undertaking their Level 1 and 2 Bikeability training. With Neil and Dave, the two instructors, the children worked really hard on developing their confidence when riding either on the playground or on the road. They learnt the following skills: 

Level 1:

Maintain your cycle: make sure your ride is in tip-top condition and make simple repairs

Glide: smooth, calm and collected

Control your bike: including setting off, cruising, slowing down, braking and stopping. You’ll even learn to pedal one handed!

Pedal: without feeling wobbly or out of control

Be aware of your surroundings: looking behind and turning around obstacles.

Level 2:

Start and stop with more confidence

Pass stationary vehicles parked on a road

Understand the road: signals, signs and road markings

Negotiate the road: including quiet junctions, crossroads and roundabouts

Share the road with other vehicles

Each group went out each day to continue their training whilst, back in the classroom, they wrote leaflets about the benefits of cycling to encourage others to 'get on their bike'!

        

        

        

Year 4 Bikeability:

        

        

The instructors were so impressed by their cycling skills, listening skills and their road awareness and, as a result, every single member of each group passed the Level 1 or Level 2 Bikeability course.

If you would like to find out more about Bikeability or cycling in general, click on the links below:

                   Bikeability website DK Find Out: Facts about cycling    Interactive Kahoot Quiz

Well done to you all and Happy Cycling!

KS2 Cross Country Championships: Thursday 9th June 2022

Lots of us in KS2 went to the Cross Country Championships at Chantry this week. We were split into 4 races: Year 3/4 Girls, Year 3/4 Boys, Year 5/6 Girls and Year 5/6 Boys. Year 3 and 4 had to run for 1KM and Year 5 and 6 had to run for 1.5KM. 

        

        

It was a superb atmosphere as everyone was cheering everyone else on no matter what school they came from or what their position was in the race. It really did help us to keep going right to end!

        

       

       

We had some superb performances and we were all really proud of ourselves. Special congratulations to two of our children who came second in their races as well as the many clifton pupils who ranked in the top 20 of their race - what a fantastic result!!

       

       

       

We enjoyed the event even though we were all a bit tired by the end! Thank you to Mrs Allen, Mrs Hughes and all the parents for cheering us on so loudly! Thank you also to all the staff and Young Leaders who organised the event. 

Written by Grace, Layla, Jack and Mrs Hughes

Clifton Sports Day 2022

For the first time since 2019, we were able to hold our whole school sports day on Wednesday 6th July. With the support of our After School Sports Clubs provider, Mr Owen, we introduced a new type of sports event for this year. All the children participated in 8 different activities across the morning. These were:

Archery

Shot-put

Javelin

Golf Putt

Long Jump

Speed Bounce

Hockey Dribble

Sprint and Relay Races

We went around the circuit in their year groups but were still competing for their house. At the end of each activity, each house was awarded 4 points, 3 points, 2 points and 1 point based on their achievements in that event. At the end, al of these were counted up in order to work out who was the winner. Congratulations to Green House who scored the most points overall!! Here is a slideshow of our very sporty morning!

Sports Day 2022