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Celebrating Healthy Schools

Published: 18/07/2016

The Flintshire Healthy Schools annual Celebration of Achievement event took place recently at Ysgol Gwynedd, Flint. This uplifting and inspiring event is organised by the Healthy Schools scheme, which is part of the Council’s Education and Youth directorate. For the first time this year, the event was celebrated jointly with the Flintshire Primary School Games Association. The event recognises the achievements of schools in all aspects of health education and sport. Pupils from schools across the county attended to receive their awards from the Chair of the Council, Councillor Peter Curtis, Cabinet Member for Education, Councillor Chris Bithell and Chief Officer for Education and Youth, Ian Budd. Kate Fox-Parry, Chair of Flintshire Primary Schools Games Association and Head of Ysgol Cae’r Nant, welcomed everyone to the event which included outstanding performances of dance (St Mary’s RC School), cheerleading (Wood Memorial CP School) and gymnastics (Ysgol Bryn Coch) as well as a presentation from Cornist Park eCadets showing how they keep their pupils, staff and local community safe online. Ysgol Cae’r Nant also gave a presentation on what it means to be a “Healthy School”. Councillor Peter Curtis presented ten schools with Healthy Schools Awards – ranging from Phase 2 to Phase 5 of the programme. The Chairman said: “Today highlights the excellent work underway in our schools as part of the ongoing commitment to the Healthy Schools Scheme – well done to everyone involved.“ Councillor Bithell then presented the Flintshire Team Sports Awards, covering a range of sports including rounders, hockey, athletics, cricket, rugby and football. The Large School Indoor Athletics Champions were Ysgol Bryn Coch, who deserve a special mention because they were also overall North Wales Champions. The biggest awards of the morning were the presentations of the National Quality Award for Healthy Schools. Three schools Cornist Park School, Mountain Lane Primary School and Southdown Primary School achieved accreditation and three schools were successfully re-assessed – Ysgol Cae’r Nant, Ysgol Gwynedd and Ysgol Bryn Coch. The schools received their awards from Ian Budd who said: “The National Quality Award is the highest accolade in the scheme and schools must complete five phases before being eligible for the award – on average this can take 10 years to achieve! The National Quality Award involves developing a whole-school approach to issues that impact health and wellbeing; they include seven different health themes ranging from Emotional Health, Food and Fitness to Environment and Safety. “A huge congratulations to all schools on such an achievement! There are now seven schools in Flintshire which have achieved the National Quality Award and across Wales only 116, which is why we are celebrating today!” Alongside the Healthy School awards, there were special presentations for Osian Jones from Ysgol Glanrafon who was awarded Male Most Promising Sportsperson 2016 and Chloe Creedy from St Winefride’s School for Female Most Promising Sportsperson award. This year’s winners of the Outstanding Contribution to Sport in Flintshire was awarded jointly to Mr Andrew Jones and Mr David Nickless for their contribution to Flintshire School Boys Football spanning over twenty years. Councillor Chris Bithell, Cabinet Member for Education, added: “This is a very special celebration event and I always look forward to attending. It is important that we recognise the sporting achievements of children and young people and celebrate the county’s talented athletes. “The Healthy Schools Scheme has been running for 14 years in Flintshire and it goes from strength to strength. It’s wonderful to see the children so engaged and enthusiastic to embrace every aspect of this inspirational scheme – long may it last.”