Thatcham's Spurcroft School wins Berkshire Virtual School Games award

SPURCROFT School pupils have shown that taking part counts after scooping a sports award.

The school won the Spirit of the Games Endeavour Award as part of Get Berkshire Active's Berkshire Virtual School Games programme.

Spurcroft was awarded for taking part in every Virtual School Games event during the 2020/21 academic year, also including 11 events and skipping events where the school achieved the platinum award.

Spurcroft was the only school in West Berkshire to achieve the award and one of only 10 across Berkshire.

PE coordinator at Spurcroft, Helen Thompson, said: "As a school we are very proud and we were fully committed to promote the importance of staying physically and mentally active throughout the year whilst the school was unable to take part in competitive events against other schools.

"We used the Virtual School Games Challenges to engage pupils to have an opportunity to use the school's values of team work, kindness, and self-belief to achieve their personal best scores whilst taking part in some different and alternative events that they wouldn't have otherwise been part of."

Certificates were presented to the classes that had participated in the events and those that finished first in Berkshire were put forward for county level with further certificates for first, second and third placings.

Sports network manager for West Berkshire, James Mandry, said: "In recognition of the continued virtual school games involvement throughout the past year, Spurcroft have managed to enter every virtual sporting event ensuring pupils are engaged in physical activity. As one of only a dozen schools across the whole county this is a fully deserved award demonstrating clear commitment to sporting opportunities. A huge congratulations to Spurcroft !"