Campsmount Technology College

I would just like to take this opportunity to say a short farewell for the next 10 months, as I leave to go off on maternity leave today. The lady covering my job is Miss Burrows, who I am sure will do a great job in my absence.

I will miss all the staff, students and parents at Campsmount but look forward to returning in January 2013.

Kind Regards

Mrs Knowland  :)

On Thursday 9^th February, 4 of our Leadership Academy students performed their Netball Youth Umpire tests at Campsmount Technology College. The girls all had to demonstrate that they could umpire and fully control a game of netball whilst being observed by a tester from England Netball.

I would like to thank Balby Carr Sports College for bringing over 2 teams to play Campsmount so our Leadership students could complete their tests. The standard of umpiring was very good from all Year 11 girls and it is pleasing to announce that all 4 girls passed this qualification.

The students are: Billie Canning-Birtles, Olivia Jackson, Abigayle Roberts and Jessica Sandford.

Unfortunately Sarah-Jane Webb was poorly on the day of assessments and was unable to complete her test at this point.

I would also like to thank Kim Burns for all of her help to ensure the girls achieved this award. It is great to see the student’s hard work and dedication to succeed has paid off…………….Well done girls!

C.Knowland (Campsmount School Sports Co-ordinator)

In January 2012, we secured funding to pay for our Campsmount Leadership Academy students to complete their Cricket Young Leaders Award. 13 of our students were able to attend the training one evening after school at Campsmount.

Andy Lockwood from the Active Fusion Sports Partnership along with James Ward were the tutors of this course and they gave our students an insight into how to assist with the delivery of cricket across primary and secondary school age ranges.

The course was a great success and all students received this award and have gained another qualification to add to their CV through being a member of our academy.

I would like to thank Andy and James for coming over to Campsmount and delivering the course.

C.Knowland (Campsmount School Sports Co-ordinator)

On Friday 13^th January, on a lovely afternoon at Askern Spa Junior School, we saw the Campsmount Pyramid High 5 Netball Festival take place once again between the 2 schools in our pyramid Askern Spa and Norton Junior School. Invited to join us were any of the Primary Schools from the Don Valley Pyramid, to make the festival that bit bigger and Castle Hills decided to join in the fun and attend.

The competition saw some great Netball being played from all schools and what was brilliant to see was the enjoyment that all students had taking part in this festival. They were helped along by 5 of our Campsmount students, who were doing their final mentor session before being externally tested for their Youth Netball Umpire Award. The year 11 students were great with the younger students giving them help and advice in how to improve throughout all of their games.

In the end it was a close competition between Castle Hills Primary School and Askern Spa Juniors, however Castle Hills just won the festival this year by beating Askern Spa by 2 goals in their game.

I would like to thank the Askern Neighbourhood team for supplying refreshments on the day, Claire Hayes was a star again and Askern Spa for hosting this festival.

Due to Askern Spa beating Norton Juniors in the festival they will now go on to represent the Campsmount Pyramid in the Doncaster High 5 Netball Finals at Adwick in a couple of weeks.

C.Knowland (Camspmount School Sports Co-ordinator)

On Wednesday 11^th January 2012, we saw the Pyramid Sports-Hall Athletics Final take place between Askern Spa and Norton Junior School. We also teamed up with the Rossington Pyramid to host this due to them not having that many schools entered in their festival.

The morning was a huge success and it saw students across Years 5 & 6 competing in a variety of track and field events. The students participated in individual and team track events and worked really hard as a team to gain as many points for their school as possible. The field events that took place were the usual speed bounce, standing long jump, vertical jump, javelin and overhead throw. All of the students worked extremely hard across all disciplines and particularly exceptional results came from the Askern Spa Girls squad.

The competition was very close with there only being 2 points in the end between the winners and the runners up. In the end the winners of the Campsmount Pyramid and the whole competition were Askern Spa Junior School who finished with a total number of 100 points and finishing closely in second position with 98 points were St Josephs Primary School from the Rossington Pyramid.

This then means that Askern Spa will go on to represent Campsmount in the Northern Doncaster Finals at the beginning of February to try and become the Doncaster Champions of Sports-Hall Athletics 2012.

A big thank you to Rossington All Saints School for again hosting this event and for their leaders help to run the festival.

C.Knowland (School Sports Co-ordinator)

Over the course of the last 2 months Campsmount have put through a total of 23 students to complete their Emergency First Aid qualification. This has taken place over the course of 2 evenings and has been run by a newly formed First Aid training company called TPM First Aid Training Solutions. Tim Monger who ran the courses has found working with our students to be an extremely enjoyable experience and has expressed how all of the students have worked very hard to develop their knowledge of First Aid.

I would also like to thank Tim for his hard work over the last few months as the courses that he has ran have been fantastic and our students have benefited from them immensely. This is all part of our new Leadership & Volunteering scheme, where we are looking at developing the provision of training opportunities that we provide for our hardworking PE students.

The students that completed the course were a mixture of students who are completing their Btec Diploma in Sport and those who are members of the Campsmount Leadership Academy. The students will now hopefully feel confident when assisting with extra-curricular sessions in the future, that they have completed this award and if an emergency arises they will know how to deal with this to assist the situation.

Pictured are some of the students completing this qualification.

C.Knowland (Campsmount School Sports Co-ordinator)

On Saturday 19^th November, Campsmount entered the National Schools Netball Tournament held at Wickersley Sports College in Rotherham. This was a first for the Campsmount girls and after 5 years of training hard I felt that it was time for them to experience playing at this level.

It was a tough competition and throughout the morning they faced very hard games against exceptional competition, including a range of South Yorkshire and England Development Squad players, so for Campsmount to hold their own in the competition it was very pleasing to see, especially as two girls were playing in this competition a year early.

They started off winning their first game against Silverdale School 5-3 and their use of spatial awareness and driving forwards onto the ball was excellent within this game. However unfortunately this was the girls only win of the day, but this was by no means a reflection of their performance. During their second game they played Sheffield Girls High School, who happened to be the Winners of the overall tournament and they put out a fantastic display against them to only lose by 1-6 was amazing against a tough squad. Following this they narrowly missed winning Aston school and the final score was 2-3, this game could have gone either way with chances constantly at both ends. They then went on to play Wickersley and the final score of this was 4-7, this was a shame as the girls were winning this game and they then let their oppositions get the better of them. Then the girls played Wales, who were the Runners up in the tournament and the final score of this game was 7-11 to Wales. The girls fought back hard to win the second half 5-3, however there just wasn’t enough time to catch up their oppositions. Then the final game of the day was against an exceptional King Edwards school in Sheffield and the girls lost this 0-11, this was the only game of the day though that was not within reach of the girls and their opposition were clearly an amazing standard.

All in all it was a very successful morning though and the girls thoroughly enjoyed being challenged at this level of Netball. There were some great performances, particularly excellent shooting from Billie Canning-Birtles and a great partnership within the shooting circle between Jessica Sandford and Billie Canning-Birtles. There was also a great centre court network between Ebony Kerry/Rosie Ward, Darrianne Woolley and Shannon McMillan and as always Olivia Jackson, Abi Roberts and Rebecca Greaves were awesome in circle defence.

A pleasure to take this set of girls to this tournament!

C.Knowland (Campsmount School Sports Co-ordinator)

   In October and November the PE department have tried to give our students an opportunity to experience a variety of alternative activities through the use of the schools Immersion Days. We have brought in specialist coaches to deliver new and exciting activities that we either do not have the expertise to deliver or time restraints prevent us from delivering these throughout the rest of the year in the PE curriculum.

An example of the activities that we offered were: Handball, Zumba, Kickboxing, Hockey, Archery and Rock it Ball. We found that the students thoroughly enjoyed the Kickboxing and Zumba and they have requested that these be delivered again in the future.

Throughout the sessions the students got the opportunity to participate in developing their skills and there was also an element of competition where it was appropriate to develop the use of intra competition within school. The sessions were high quality and all students participated in all of the different activities on a carousel. We will be looking at doing something again very similar in the next Immersion Day coming up in February for a different year group.

C.Knowland (Campsmount School Sports Co-ordinator)

On Wednesday 19^th October, the U16 Campsmount Netball Squad entered their Doncaster Netball tournament and for those students who are not staying on into sixth form at Campsmount this was probably one of the last that they would enter together.

The girls have never won this tournament in the past and each year they have gone from strength to strength. Back when they all first entered the tournament in 2008 the standard of netball that the girls produced was very different from that of today. They lost every single one of their games and I promised them that if they worked hard and attended practice each week that they would get much better and one day we would win that tournament. I am sure then that some of the girls didn’t quite believe me and thought I was just saying this to make them feel better, especially after suffering a 21-0 defeat. However, they all listened and over the past 5 years they have continued to listen to everything I have said and developed their netball to an excellent standard.

Last year saw us miss out on the final by 1 goal, which was such a shame as the girls thoroughly deserved a place in that final. Therefore, this year we had a point to prove and we set about to do this. The girls played their little hearts out and the standard of Netball that they produced was unbelievable. To become champions the girls had to ensure they scored more points overall in the Round Robin tournament than Hall Cross, Hungerhill, Balby, Rossington and Hayfield and they did this! In their final match they played Rossington where their spatial awareness and ability to read each other’s game was exceptional.

Over the past 5 years I have loved coaching this squad and they have become as I now call them “My Dream team”. I will be very sad in March when it comes to the end of the netball season and for some of the girls they will be moving on. Pictured is photos from their very first tournament and the girls now. Thanks for being such fabulous netballers….I will miss you all!!

(Unfortunately Karina Jakes-Shawcroft was absent for the photograph)

C.Knowland (Campsmount School Sports Co-ordinator)

In July 2011, the 24 Cheerleaders who won the 2011 Eurovision Dance Contest were given the opportunity to go on a full days’ trip to the City Limits Dance Studio in Sheffield, which is owned by the” Bennett Brothers” (Darren Bennett famous for his appearances on Strictly Come Dancing).

The girls started off the day by having a Salsa session in the upper ballroom; they had the pleasure of a Latin/Ballroom specialist teacher who was all the way from Russia. The girls partnered up and learnt some specialist Salsa moves. They then had a short break and followed this session with a lesson in the Jive. This was very fast paced and the girls found this very energetic. They then had a dance competition at the end, where they were split in half and had to compete against each other.

Following lunch, the girls finished off with a session on Street Dance/Hip hop, which was great to watch. The girls learnt very fast hand and arm movements and then put together their own piece to a selected piece of music.

This was great treat for the girls to experience, they had such an array of dances to learn all within one day and one which I am sure they won’t forget.

C.Knowland (Campsmount School Sports Co-ordinator)