Newbury school gets national recognition
Park House School has won the highly commended award for Specialist Sports College of the Year
PARK House School in Newbury has received recognition at a prestigious annual awards ceremony celebrating school sport.
The Andover Road secondary school has won the ‘highly commended' award for Specialist Sports College of the Year at the Aviva Daily Telegraph school sport matters awards.
The school received the award at a ceremony at Twickenham Stadium last Thursday (November 3), in recognition of its contribution to sports-inspired learning at local, national and international levels, combined with record-breaking GCSE and A level results.
Locally, the school has used the Olympics and Paralympics to develop a wide range of cross and extra curricular primary school projects, while in a national context, the school has played a leading advocacy role within the 2012 Get Set Schools Network.
The school has also built on its existing international partnerships and established new ones to promote the Olympic and Paralympic values through the ‘common language' of sport.
Sports writer at The Daily Telegraph, Gareth Davies, said: “The innovation and commitment to sport shown at Park House should be used as a template nationally.
“What is being achieved is sensational in sporting terms, both for today, and as part of a legacy commitment.”
The school headteacher, Derek Peaple, said the recognition was fantastic, adding that he was proud of everyone at the school.
“We have always been very proud to be a specialist sports college, firmly believing that sporting values can promote all round academic achievement and personal development,” he said.
“This award confirms both this belief and additionally recognises the way in which we have used our sports college ethos creatively to build international, national and local partnerships around the Olympics and Paralympic values.
“These have significantly raised standards of achievement, developed student leadership and widened participation across a broad family of schools, all based on the power of sporting culture to change young people's lives.”
