The Olympics come early to schools in North S - School News - North Somerset SSP

Six hundred primary school pupils from across North Somerset took part in the third North Somerset Festival of Sport on Wednesday 23 June.

Hosted by Hutton Moor Leisure Centre in Weston-super-Mare, we organised the event in partnership with the West of England Sport Trust and the Wyvern School Sports Partnership.

Bristol International Airport also kindly donated £1500 to help support the event for the third year running.

Local sports clubs and coaches ran the sports activities on the day with help from 16 young leaders from Backwell and Nailsea Secondary Schools.

A total of 10 sports were included in the event ranging from fencing and hockey to cheerleading. All participants had the opportunity to try out two new sports each.

The event was targeted at 7-11 year olds who do not take part in sport and physical activity outside of school and is linked to the national Sport Unlimited initiative.

The festival encompassed an Olympic theme with every school that took part representing a different country in the opening ceremony and parade. Schools brought along flags, banners and had their faces painted in ways that represented the country they were allocated to help create an Olympic festival atmosphere.

We were also lucky to be joined by Freyja Prentice, a sporting champion in the tough world of modern pentathlon, her debut in 2009 left her standing 10th ,but she didn’t stop there and in the 2010 world cup series she finished 9th. Freyja spent all day at the event, joining in with different sports, answering questions and spending time with the young people.

The festival is also part of the Go4Life campaign to