National School Sports Week is a huge celebration of everything that is great about PE and school sport, with schools across the country invited to take part and celebrate Physical Education. It started in 2008 and thousands of schools and millions of pupils took part last year.

The aim of National School Sports Week 2023 (Monday 19 to Sunday 25 June 2023) is to encourage all children in the UK to be active for the Chief Medical Officer's recommended minimum time of 60 minutes a day - ‘play for fun, play for 60’!

This year at Deer Park we were again able to involve local community clubs and coaches to help us run our National School Sports Week (NSSW). The PE Faculty feel that it is important to encourage our pupils to participate in local community sport, both whilst at school and afterwards. In addition to the obvious physical benefits, people who are regularly active tend to enjoy better mental wellbeing; we encourage everyone to continue sport in some form throughout their lives, whether team or individual sports, whether in a competitive capacity or as a social choice.

During NSSW, pupils were able to experience different and exciting sports and physical activities that we do not normally teach in school, such as Zumba, Martial Arts, Self Defence, Golf, Lacrosse, Girls Rugby, Table Tennis and Handball. Pupils had the chance to improve their mental, social and physical wellbeing, as well as building key fitness components such as strength and endurance. Providing these new enriching opportunities enables our pupils to also develop key skills such as team work, resilience and respect.

Mr Cumming, Assistant Head of the PE Faculty, commented “We have had a highly successful week celebrating National School Sports Week. It is important that our pupils have access to local community clubs and organisations in order for them to be able to continue enjoying sport and physical activity outside of school. It has also been important to continue developing our community sport links as this had been paused during the pandemic."

Our thanks to The Friends of Deer Park for their support and to the sports providers who were with us during National School Sports Week: Minchinhampton Rugby Club, Phoenix Martial Arts, Cirencester Judo Club, Stroud District Table Tennis, Zumba with Meryl, Cirencester Skillz, Gloucestershire Handball and Cirencester Golf Club. .