It was a typical Thursday lunchtime; the latest pupil had just been into the staffroom to deliver their reason for not participating in games that afternoon.  I can’t quite recall whether it was the stubbed toe excuse, or their trainers were simply too wet to play rounders in.  Regardless, this had started to become the norm for far too long.  It was not the poor excuses that particularly bothered me.  It was the effort that pupils were going to in order to not take part in something, which should ultimately be fun!  Enough was enough . . .  something had to change!

The PE department got together and looked at what we could do to inject new life into the sports curriculum.  A meeting with the senior management team was scheduled for the following week and this is where idea #PEwithaDifference started.  Activities such as golf, outdoor education, handball, trips to the gym and mountain biking were all put forward.  Whilst the meeting was largely a success, and everyone thought the ideas were good, it was clear that one element was lacking, MONEY! How were we going to provide these activities especially the mountain bikes on our current budget?

With only four weeks left of the term and time running out we knew that we had to act quickly.  I had an idea!  With Simon getting married towards the end of the holiday, Justin departing for Australia and my wife heavily pregnant, we only had the first week of the summer holidays free to take on the challenge of the coast to coast mountain bike route.  But we did it!  And by the time we had finished the ride we had raised over £1800 towards our mountain bike fund.

Knowing that we still needed to raise more money the PTA stepped in and organised a race night at the Fylingdales Inn.  Spearheaded by Lisette Vincent-Jones, Tina Hodgson and Angelique Russell another £800 was raised!  It was quite fitting that the last race on the night was won by the Fyling Hall staff with the horse’s name being “Sore Arses”!  £130 winnings which was put back into the pot.

The school tuck shop has also contributed nearly £1,000 towards the mountain bikes.

I would like to thank everyone who has donated towards the raising of funds for the mountain bikes, without your contributions it would not have been possible to raise the money required to purchase them, and make a real difference to the curriculum we can deliver to the children in their PE lessons.

I am delighted to say that on Monday of half term we have been to collect 10 bikes for the school, from Arthur Caygill Bikes.  Due to their help during the Coast to Coast ride we felt it appropriate to purchase the bikes from them, a family run business, which really helped us out on the ride.

To watch the video of the Coast to Coast click here!  Watch this space for more news on #PEwithaDifference!

Marcus Coates

Head of Games