Children from Adel St John and St Joseph's primary schools with Lord Mayor of Leeds, Cllr Ann Castle, British race walker Tom Bosworth and paralympian GB swimmer Claire Cashmore
Adel St John the Baptist Church of England primary school and St Joseph’s Catholic primary school, Hunslet were declared winners of Walk the History of the Games at an award ceremony at Leeds Civic Hall hosted by the Lord Mayor today ( Wednesday 13th June).
The Lord Mayor of Leeds, Cllr Ann Castle, British race walker and Olympic torch bearer Tom Bosworth and Paralympics GB swimmer Claire Cashmore presented the winning schools with their awards.
Walk the History of the Games is a six-month long West Yorkshire initiative to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic Games by encouraging children to walk, scoot and cycle to school.
A total of 35,000 children from 115 school across West Yorkshire took part in the challenge, but the two Leeds schools were the first to “walk” all the way from Athens in 1896 to London 2012 by accumulating special "Games miles".
The prize of £2012 was donated by Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation (YPO) who presented a cheque to the wining schools.
Two other schools, Seven Hills primary in Morley and St Anthony’s Catholic primary in Beeston, received awards for being the second and third Leeds schools to complete the challenge
Simon Hill, Managing Director of YPO, said:
“I would like to congratulate both schools on their fantastic win and hope they enjoy spending their prize money. It is set to be a fantastic summer of sporting activity, and we hope our resources will go towards enhancing the schools’ physical and wider educational programmes.”
Janice Turner, headteacher of Adel St John the Baptist Church of England Primary, said “
“Pupils were so inspired by the whole initiative that they came to me on a daily basis with their own suggestions, some of which would have challenged even our finest athletes , such as skipping to school, jogging to school and singing to school events.
“ I believe that our children thoroughly enjoyed participating in this challenge and we fully intend to continue our drive to encourage walking, cycling or scooting to school. It‘s been a brilliant initiative. ”
Elizabeth Snelling, headteacher of St Joseph’s Catholic Primary, said:
“Our children planned and participated in some wonderful activities from walking backwards to school, competing class to class to see who could clock up the most miles in a day on the school exercise bikes and participating in a whole school ‘scoot and bike’ day.
“I am absolutely over the moon with their success at being joint winners of the Walk the History of the Games competition. We are now looking forward to our school Olympics week in June and in welcoming the torch to Leeds.”
Councillor Judith Blake, Leeds City Council’s executive board member for children's services, said:
“ I want to offer my congratulations to the winning schools and to all the children who participated in this event. Walk the History of the Games has been a great way to encourage children to keep fit and healthy by walking to school whilst at the same time celebrating the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. ”
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For media enquiries, please contact;
Annie Goodyear, Leeds City Council press office (0113) 224 3937
Email: anniegoodyear@leeds.gov.uk
