Celebrating Diversity of Competition

THIS week sees the return of Lipson Academy’s annual School Sports Days, when the focus will be on celebration, as well as competition.

Every single student at the Academy will take part in the action-packed two-day schedule, with all the staff also participating in a whole-school festival of endeavour and achievement.

Head of PE Ed Goodman has organised a crammed timetable of events on Wednesday and Thursday that combines the traditional with the less conventional – an approach that has piqued the interest of Lipson students as never before.

So, as well as sports day staples like the 100m, high jump and relay races, this week’s agenda includes the Great Lipson Bake-off, a jewellery contest, and a dance competition.

All this will be topped off by an afternoon rejoicing that, after months of COVID-19 restrictions, the school is able to come together in a socially acceptable way and enjoy the essential communal part of school life.

Mr Goodman said: “Previously, Lipson’s school sports have been purely an elite track and field sports day at Brickfields, with typically sporty students wanting to take part.

“We’ve flipped that on its head this year as a celebration that shows the power of sport in getting people together, so we’ve asked for all students to get involved in at least one event.

“Team events range from football, Dodgeball and tug-of-war to bakery, chess, Lipson’s Bling Thing – a jewellery competition – and Sports from Around the World, which the Modern Foreign Language department is running.

“The thinking is to give students a wider opportunity to pick something that they are familiar with and see as a particular strength.

“It’s been challenging, trying to organise it, but it will be worth it – especially with the backing of all the staff being out there, making sure children are safe and enjoying it.

“After the events, we have provided time as a Celebration Afternoon, where we will have a barbecue; an ice-cream van will make an appearance; and we’ve hired inflatables.

“We’ve got around 360 students involved in that celebration, which means we’ve had many more children signed up to take part than in the past. It shows that students are crying out for this type of thing and have missed these whole-school events.”

Our social media platforms will be covering the Sports Days live.

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