Beaulieu, Chelmsford’s vibrant new district which is a 50/50 joint venture between Countryside and L&Q, has teamed up for another year with the Chelmsford School Sport Partnership (CSSP) to sponsor the Mini-Games sports tournament.
Aimed at all Year 2 students in Chelmsford (aged 6 and 7), the annual competition has an Olympic-style format and takes place at the Chelmsford Sport and Athletic Centre. This year, six competitions took place over three dates: Tuesday 4th, Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th June.
The results have now been announced, with the following schools coming out on top:
- 1st place – St Johns C of E Primary School
- 2nd place – Great Leighs Primary School
- 3rd place – Great Waltham School
The tournament began following an impressive opening ceremony, which included a marching band and stilt walkers. 43 primary and infant schools attended the event and over 1900 children were present to compete over the three days. In addition to this, 150 young volunteer leaders from Great Baddow High, St John Payne, Boswells Academy and Chelmsford College also played a key role, having been trained to run the activities.
The children collected points following each activity and the relevant scores were then added together and divided by the number of children the school has brought along. By calculating an average, schools both large and small were able to compete fairly against each other.
Andrew Carrington, Managing Director, Housebuilding (Strategic Land) Countryside, comments: “Following our sponsorship of the Superstars Festival earlier this year, it’s been an absolute pleasure to continue working with Sara Robson and her outstanding team to deliver this year’s Mini-Games competition. Encouraging an active and healthy lifestyle is something that’s very important to us at Beaulieu and we can’t think of a better way of accomplishing this than supporting Chelmsford’s youth and teaching them, from a young age, the value of sports, friendship and healthy competition.”
Craig Luttman, Deputy Group Director of Development and Sales at L&Q, says: “It was fantastic to support the Chelmsford School Sport Partnership with another successful sports tournament. Beaulieu has been designed to provide a range of community, health and sports facilities alongside generous green open spaces.
“L&Q is a charitable housing association, with a track record of investing in the communities we work in. We are proud to support Sara and her team in their work encouraging healthy lifestyles in Chelmsford.”
Sara Robson, School Games Organiser for the Chelmsford School Sport Partnership, says: “Since it started in 2008, the Mini-Games sports competition has focused on teaching young children good sporting attitudes in an inclusive environment. It’s fantastic to see that we now have a whole generation of children from Year 2 to Year 6 who have experienced competing in an event like this. I would like to thank Beaulieu for their generous funding year after year, as well as Chelmsford City Council and my team for the fantastic effort they’ve put in to make sure this year’s edition of Mini-Games was the best one yet.”
At the closing ceremony of the event, the winning schools were announced for each event and gold, silver and bronze medals were given to the top three boys and girls. All participants also received a Beaulieu sports bag for participating.
The Chelmsford School Sport Partnership was launched in September 2003. The Chelmsford Partnership continues to develop and work with all 61 schools in the area, including eight secondary state schools, two special schools and 50 primary schools. The organisation is committed to improving sporting opportunities for young people and meeting the new targets for the School Games programme. It offers support to all schools on competitive high quality PE, leadership opportunities, support for identifited students, coaching, INSET and access to funding.
Since the Mini-Games began in 2008:
- Over 21,600 children have taken part
- 1728 young leaders have been trained to run it and gained valuable life skills
- Feedback from teachers has been consistently positive with the event becoming an established part of the primary schools’ events programme in Chelmsford.
