Peebles News

Find out what has been happening in the Peebles area, get the round up of all the Peebles Active Schools news....

If you have any news you like to share with Active Schools get in touch.

Easter Programme

As the Easter holidays approach, information is now arriving in schools regarding the exciting Active Schools and Sports Development holiday activity programme. A variety of activity and sports programmes have been organised in the Peebles cluster to keep children busy and active over the holiday period.

During the first week of the holidays, 8-12 year old children can attend an Activity Club that will include sportshall athletics, tennis, basketball, rugby and cricket. For the younger children (5-7 years) a Kidz Club has been organised which will include enjoy-a-ball, racket games and funky fitness!

During the second week of the holidays, the SFA come to Peebles and will be providing football courses for children from 3 years old up to 11 years old.

Finally, for those who would like to have a go at hip-hop dance or cheerleading, there will be courses organised for 5-7 year olds and 8-14 year olds.

To book a place for Easter, please complete the application form contained in the holiday activity brochure.

     Priorsford are Netball Champions

The Scottish Borders netball finals were recently held at the Queens Leisure Centre in Galasheils. Area competitions were held in January and the top two teams from each cluster were then invited to attend the Borders finals in Galasheils. Teams from Kingsland and Priorsford qualified from the Peebles cluster and both teams gave a really good account of themselves at the finals.

This year’s competition was one of the closest in recent years with no team dominating during the pool stages. After a really exciting tournament Priorsford eventually came out on top as the Scottish Borders Netball Champions for 2010. Congratulations to both Priorsford and Kingsland on their performance at the finals.

A huge thank you also to the PE staff and netball coaches at all Peebles Primary Schools who take lunch time/after-school sessions and help out with our local cluster competitions.    

Jogging Groups Up and Running

This year has seen an increase in the number of schools providing lunch-time/after-school running clubs for children. These clubs provide an excellent opportunity for children to be active by taking part in lots of fun running based games and also running/walking for short distances to build up their fitness.

The most recent club to be set up is at Priorsford Primary School where 7 parent/teacher volunteers are organising a weekly programme supported by Active Schools. The response from the children has been fantastic with approximately 100 children attending over three 3 groups! Other clubs are taking place at West Linton, Halyrude and Kingsland, again all driven by enthusiastic parent/teacher volunteers.

The Active Schools training programme now includes a Junior Joggers workshop. This workshop is based on a pack developed by JogScotland which includes ideas for            warm – ups, stretches and running based games. This course is recommended for any volunteers involved in school running clubs at the moment, or anyone who would be interested in getting involved/setting up a club in another school in the future.

Primary Children Shoot Some Hoops

The Tweeddale basketball festival recently took place at Gytes Leisure Centre for primary 6 and 7 children. The event was attended by eight teams from local primary schools and provided a fun introduction to basketball with games played on modified courts with lower baskets.

All teams played each other in a round – robin format and no scores were kept as the aim of the event was just to introduce the sport of basketball in a relaxed, fun environment. There was a great atmosphere on the day and schools got into the spirit by giving their teams NBA style names such as the West Linton Wizards!

Games were refereed on the day by senior pupils form Peebles High School and a huge thank you is due to them for their efforts.

Children who have enjoyed their introduction to basketball can then continue their involvement by attending sessions on a Saturday morning run by Euan Jardine.

Rugby Program Thriving

The school-club link with Peebles Rugby Club has continued to develop over the past year. The primary 6 and 7 rugby festival recently completed another year of school coaching sessions by the club's Development Officer. All primary 5, 6 and 7 children have received coaching during curriculum time and have learned the basic skills of the game as well as having the opportunity to play small – sided tag rugby matches. After receiving a block of coaching in school, children are given the opportunity to attend club sessions at the weekends. This link is working extremely well and the club currently has a very busy junior section!

Judo Champion Visits St.Ronan’s 

Primary 7 pupils from St.Ronan’s and Walkerburn Primary Schools’ were recently visited by Euan Burton (GB Olympic judo athlete) as part of the Champions in Schools programme. Champions in Schools is a role model programme delivered by Winning Scotland Foundation that places Scotland’s high performing athletes into the classroom to deliver a series of inspirational workshops. These workshops encourage children to set and achieve personal goals, pursue a healthy and active lifestyle and to appreciate the value of hard work whilst adopting a positive winning attitude.

During Euan’s visit he talked to the children about goal setting and played a number of fun judo based games with them. The children also got to try on some of Euan’s GB Olympic kit as well as a number of his medals including bronze and silver medals won at World and European Championships.

The children thoroughly enjoyed this session and are now eagerly awaiting Euan’s next visit in February!

Halyrude Crowned Small Schools Netball Champs

The Borders small schools netball tournament took place in Galashiels on Wednesday 18^th November. Teams from Halyrude, Eddleston, Broughton and Newlands took part in the tournament which saw 10 schools from across the Borders competing. The standard of play was very high and the tournament was played in a great spirit with children really enjoying the morning. Congratulations to all Tweeddale schools on their performance and a special well done to Halyrude Primary School who won the tournament. Thanks to all coaches and PE staff involved in coaching netball across Tweeddale for their continued commitment to providing netball opportunities throughout the year.

Peebles Sportshall Event a Run-Away Success

The first Peebles cluster sportshall athletics competition recently took place at Gytes Leisure Centre. Teams from Kingsland, Priorsford, Halyrude, St.Ronan’s and West Linton took part in the event which saw pupils competing in a variety of track and field events.

The competition was extremely close and a great atmosphere was created by the children cheering on their team-mates. After an exciting morning of running, jumping and throwing events, the final scores were calculated and the winners announced. The Tweeddale sportshall champions for 2009 were Priorsford, closely followed in 2^nd place by Kingsland and West Linton in 3^rd.

Gymnastics Festival

Pupils from a number of Tweeddale Primary schools recently attended a gymnastics festival at Kingsland Primary School. The festival was organised by the PE curriculum support teachers in the Peebles cluster and was the culmination of a block of gymnastics work in local schools.

The event was a great success and allowed gymnasts to display their floor work, vaulting and a group routine to music. As in previous years, the standard of gymnastics was very high and well done to all involved.

PHS Mountain Bike Club 

Peebles High School has a very active and well attended Moutain Biking Club run by Mrs Wallace (PE Teacher) and helped by volunteers from Glentress. In order for the pupils to coninue to enjoy their biking in the darker months, the Active Schools team have provided the funding to purchase 5 sets of specialized outdoor biking lights. We hope these will be well used by the pupils in the club, and help keep them cycling throughout the winter!

Festival a Big Success

 Approximately 400 children had a fantastic time recently at a combined hockey and rugby festival in Peebles. The festival was organised as a joint project between Active Schools, Primary PE, Scottish Hockey and Peebles Rugby Club, and was attended by primary schools from across Tweeddale.The ethos of the festival was to allow large numbers of children to be active and enjoy playing sport in a supportive, fun environment.

The rugby festival was for boys and girls in primary four and five, and was the follow up to a programme of school based coaching sessions. On arrival at the festival, the 200 children were divided into teams representing the six nation’s countries. Children then had the opportunity to play a number of small-sided tag rugby games against the other countries in their pool.

 The hockey festival was for boys and girls in primary six and seven, and followed a block of hockey delivered by primary school PE staff over the autumn term. Children attended in school teams and played a number of mini-hockey matches against the other teams in their pool. There was an excellent turnout this year with 24 teams in attendance.

All games in both sports were refereed by senior pupils from Peebles High School. The referees did a superb job and huge thanks go to them for helping make the day such a success.

New Traverse Wall for Priorsford

Priorsford Primary School recently applied to the Lottery Awards for All programme for funding towards a freestanding traverse wall. They were successful in their bid and received a fantastic £8,700! In order to make up the shortfall in funding required, a climbing fundraising day was recently organised for the P5-P7 children.

 Extreme Dream from Aviemore brought a mobile climbing tower to the school on Wednesday 23^rd September and the children were challenged to climb the combined height of the 3 highest peaks in the UK. Each child was sponsored to make a number of climbs to the top of the tower and as a group they covered the distance to successfully complete the 3 Peaks Challenge. Great fun was had by all the children and even a few teachers had a go at climbing to the top! The day was a huge success with the children raising an astonishing £1,700.

Extreme Dream is now in the process of building the schools’ own traverse climbing wall in the playground. This will provide a fantastic challenge for the children and an opportunity to be active at break time, lunch time and after school.