We were delighted that 3 of our teams made it through to the County Cross-Country Championships, which were held at Mount St. Mary's College, Sheffield.  It was a perfect day for cross - country, as the sun was shining, but it was not too warm.  There were over 15 teams and over 60 + runners taking part in each race.  The Year 3/4 boys were the first to run the 1.2km course, and they all ran superbly, finishing closely together and all within the top 35 runners.  The Year 3/4 girls were the next to run, and we were very impressed with the determination they all showed (we had to replace 2 runners the day before due to illness).  Once again, they came in close together (all within the top 30), which is so important in a team event, as the finishing positions get added together to give their overall placing.  Finally, it was the turn of the Year 5/6 girls who had to run 1.5km. Once again, all the girls ran superbly, pacing themselves well & sprinting to the finish. Lena Frederick led from the front and ran a superbly paced race, maintaining her lead throughout and finishing a good 15m ahead of the second-placed girl, picking up the gold medal for her efforts.  The Year 3/4 girls placed 3rd overall; an amazing achievement out of more than 15 teams.  It really was a team effort and, once again, I am so proud of how well they all ran.

Always a favourite for Longstone, as the atmosphere is always great at this event, and it is exciting until the very end, as we never know exactly how well we have done until all the points are added up from the 'field' events and running events.  The team did brilliantly with the 'field' events; we had some long 'jumps' and some great throws, and the speed bounce children were very fast and fluent.  Great support for all the running events; much needed, as with 2 timed heats it was important that we did not slow down, even if we won the race, as we didn't know how fast the other heat was.  We won 4 out of the 5 running events - a fabulous achievement.  There was then a 'nail-biting' wait for the results; 3rd place was announced (not us), 2nd place, which 2 schools tied for (not us) and then 1st place - yes we had done it!  We won the competition and were very pleased to receive our 1st place medals.  The team will now go on to represent the school at the County Tournament - what an amazing achievement - watch this space for the County Report after Easter.

Nine Year 5 & 6 pupils took part in this tournament at Anthony Gell School.  The format has changed this year; the girls played the first half of the game and then the boys the second half with the scores being added together for each game.  The games were fast and furious; it was fabulous to watch how much the team grew in confidence the more they played & their team work and sportsmanship was superb.  They won 3 games and lost 1 and finished in 2nd place overall - an amazing achievement, as we are new to playing basketball at that level.  Well done to all those who took part in this tournament.                                                                                                                                 

This tournament took place at Racecourse Fields, Derby on brand new Astro pitches, which were amazing.  The boys played 5 games, winning 2 and losing 3, but only by 1-0 scores, and they finished 4th overall, but narrowly missing out on 3rd place.  We were delighted to receive a phone call the next day from a head teacher from another Derbyshire school, who complimented our boys on their fabulous sportsmanship, even when they were defeated by his school; he mentioned that this is not always seen at football tournaments.  It made us very proud to receive this call, as sportsmanship is something we work very hard on at school, alongside the other Longstone values.  Well done boys!

The Year 6's had a fantastic time learning to play wheelchair basketball.  It was great for them to learn something different, and they picked up the skills very quickly.  It was a great activity to take part in during Children's Mental Health Week.  Well done to all the Year 6 children for joining in with such confidence and enthusiasm.

All the Year 5 & 6 pupils took part in this tournament at Longstone School.  We entered 3 teams and some children took part in a festival of netball skill activities.  All the children played well, and we had some wins, draws and losses.  The children once again displayed excellent skills and showed fabulous sportsmanship.  The 'A' team were unbeaten in all of their games and made it through to the final, which they went on to win, and so, were the overall winners of the tournament.  However, it really was a whole class effort that secured this win.  Well done to everyone.

A team of 11 Year 5 & 6 pupils took part in this event at Graves Sports Centre in Sheffield.  They showed great skill, teamwork, supported each other and, as always, displayed fantastic sportsmanship; values that we work hard on at school.  The team were victorious, being overall winners of the competition.  The team will go on to represent Longstone in the SSP round in March.  Well done to all our athletes.

Following on from the success at the team cross-country finals, 8 runners returned to Whitworth Park for the individual finals the following day! All 8 runners finished in the top 10 in each of the races; we also had 2 girls finishing in podium positions - 1st place in the Year5/6 race and 2nd place in the Year 3/4 race - amazing results.  6 of the 8 children will go on to compete in the County Cross-Country finals in the new year.  Well done to all our runners.

Four teams took part in the 2nd round of the team cross-country finals at Whitworth Park.  They all ran superbly, pacing well, coming in close together within their teams and every one of them finishing with a sprint, passing other runners right up to the finish line.  12 out of the 16 runners finished in the top 10 - amazing results.  The Year 4 girls team won overall, the Year 3/4 boys team was 2nd overall, the Year 5/6 girls team were 2nd overall and the Year 5/6 boys team were 4th overall; some of these teams will now compete at the County Cross-Country finals in the new year.  Well done to all the runners - very proud of you all.

This is always one of the sporting events that the Year 3 & 4 children look forward to at Bakewell Junior School & it's always an exciting event.  34 children played in 3 teams in the tournament and then enjoyed some Dodgeball skill activities.  All 3 teams won games and the 'A' and 'B' teams ended up playing against each other in the semi-finals, with the 'A' team beating the 'B' team.  The 'A' team then faced Monyash School in the final and played 3 closely fought games, but managed to beat them and finish up being the overall winners of the tournament.  All the Longstone children were extremely honest throughout the tournament - 1 of the key rules in Dodgeball.  Well done to all the Year 3 & 4 children; it was a fabulous afternoon of sport.

Having won the SSP North Round of the Year 5 & 6 Football Tournament, the boys returned to Highfields to play in the next round (North & South combined).  The boys played superbly, winning 3 games and drawing 1 game - once again a real team effort, and they were all really supportive of each other.  The team will now represent Longstone at the County Tournament in the new year - a fabulous achievement.  Well done!

A great afternoon of football with 12 boys and girls from Year 4 taking part in a mini-tournament & shooting skills at Lady Manners School.  The standard of football was excellent by all the schools & it was great to see all the children getting 'stuck in.'  It was fabulous to see how encouraging and supportive the children were of each other - well done! 

Another win in the Tag Rugby Tournament played on 'home turf!'  All the pupils in Year 5 & 6 took part in this event, either in 1 of the teams or in the festival of rugby skill activities.  The 'A' Team were unbeaten in all 5 matches and so lifted the winners' trophy.  The 'B' Team improved with every game they played.  As always, all the children showed fantastic sportsmanship.  Another great victory - the 'A' Team will go on to play in the next round in a few weeks' time.

Both the boys and girls teams made it through to the SSP round of the football held at Highfields School.  The girls finished 3rd overall with some very closely fought games - they won 1, drew 2 and lost 1.  The boys finished 2nd overall - won 3 and lost 1, but as they were the 1st place finishers in the small schools, they will go onto the next round of the SSP Tournament and meet the other winners of the small school tournaments from within the area - a great achievement.  Well done to all those who played in the tournament.

Always a favourite event (at least for some!) in the sporting calendar; the whole school attended this event at Bakewell Junior School.  All the children ran the cross-country course, with the R/Y1/2 pupils running 600 m, Y 3/4 running 1 km and Y5/6running 1.5 km.  They also all took part in some athletics - based games.  The children all ran superbly and certainly showed their knowledge of how to pace when running a longer distance; we were also impressed with how many children ran the whole distance, without walking at all.  We had some fabulous individual results in each of the races, but it was the team results in which the top 4 placed Longstone children in each age group had their positions added together to give a final score that was a truly amazing result - the best ever.  The team results were:

R/Y1/2 Boys - 1st

R/Y1/2 Girls - 1st

Y3/4 Boys - 2nd

Y3/4 Girls - 2nd

Y5/6 Boys - 2nd

Y5/6 Girls - 1st

I was so proud of how well all the children ran, but I was particularly pleased to see how supportive of each other they all were.

We took two teams to this event at Tideswell - a boys' team and a girls' team.  A record number of girls (14 in total) wanted to be part of the team and nobody opted to do the festival activities, which was brilliant.  It was great to see how enthusiastic & supportive of each other the girls were, especially with lots of 'subbing' going on in each game!  Both teams did not lose a single game in their group matches and went on to win their semi-finals.  The girls then faced Bakewell in the final and won 3-0 and the boys faced Bishop Pursglove 'A' and won their game 2-0, resulting in the two Longstone teams being overall winners of the tournament.  The girls did not concede a single goal in the whole tournament - an amazing achievement. Both teams will now go on to compete in the SSP round of the competition in October.  Well done to all the children who took part - it was fabulous to see how encouraging and supportive of each other you all were.

The final external event of the sporting calendar and always a favourite - rounders at Rowsley field.  Two teams from Year 5/6 took part & they played brilliantly; their fielding was amazing and there was some strong batting too.  The 'B' Team missed out on being in the final by 1/2 a rounder and finished in 3rd place overall.  The 'A' Team made it to the final and in a very close game against Bakewell Juniors managed to be the overall winners of the tournament by just 1/2 a rounder.  Once again the sportsmanship from all the children was fabulous; it was a great way to 'round off' an extremely successful sporting year.  Well done to all the children who took part in this event.

Our Donaldson Class children enjoyed an excellent afternoon of throwing and catching sports skills with our SSP cluster schools. 

Luckily the rain stopped just as we arrived at Baslow Sports Field for an afternoon of tennis. The Year 4 children took part in lots of tennis based activities to improve their skills, including using a giant tennis racket! Some of the children played in a mini tennis tournament. They all had a brilliant time & said their tennis skills had definitely improved. When the results were announced we were delighted to hear that Longstone had won the mini tournament. Well done Year 4!

The Year 2 children had a great afternoon at the FUNdamentals sports afternoon at Whitworth Park. They took part in tennis, football, dance & chasing games. It was lovely to see them having so much fun & mixing so well with children from other schools. They said they enjoyed all of the activities. It was great fun.

Cluster cricket yesterday for all of Year 5 & 6. Two teams entered the tournament and the rest of the class took part in a festival of cricket themed activities. Excellent teamwork in the tournament with every player batting, bowling & fielding. The festival children enjoyed their activities & certainly improved their skills.

The ‘A’ & ‘B’ teams played brilliantly in the tournament & the ‘A’ team were the overall winners. Well done Longstone!

The Year 3 children were very excited to be involved in this event, which was a mix of different sports:  Rounders skills, Tennis skills, Golf skills, Athletics skills and Tai Chi.  It was great to arrive at Youlgreave School with such enthusiastic children, who could not wait to get started.  We were joined together with Bakewell School and some of the children knew each other and so during the activities they mixed up really well.  We started off with rounders and it was great to see the children striking the ball with confidence.  One of the children's favourites was the Athletics skills, as they got to go over and under equipment in different ways - cartwheels were a favourite!!  I was very impressed with the children during the Tennis skills, as they answered all the questions, knowing that tennis involves coordination, agility and balance skills.  We finished with Tai Chi, which they loved (a favourite for Mrs Reeves too!) It was a great afternoon and one of the children said - " It was the best day ever."  What a fabulous afternoon of sport.

All of Year 5 attended the SSOC - School Sports Organising Crew Training at Anthony Gell School.  They worked together in groups to find out what qualities make a good leader, what roles we have to 'take on' for example promoter, referee, scorer, instructor, in order to lead and they made up and planned games with children from other schools, using limited equipment.  Some of the children then had to lead the rest of the group and teach them their chosen game and they all took on roles such as being a referee to help with this.  They also got a chance to be led and enjoyed playing lots of different games.  I was really impressed with how the Longstone children became increasingly more confident during the training and by the end of it were all willingly contributing their ideas and were very much part of the session.  
We are going to plan, teach and play some games to the younger children during lunch times this term, so that they can practice the skills they have learnt.  They will then be able to continue this when they move into Year 6 and also help at some of the sports events and help to run Inter-House sport next year.  Well done Year 5!

Having won the SSP Event, back in February, the Year 5 & 6 Team travelled to Derby to compete in the County Finals.  They were competing against 5 other schools - each of the winners of their SSP Final from within the County (over 90 schools across Derbyshire took part in the different 'rounds.')  On arriving at Derby College, the children seemed very nervous and took a little while to settle into their warm-up skills:  It's always hard to compete somewhere new and with schools that they have never competed against before, so they were glad they had a chance to practise their 'field' events before the competition started.  They soon relaxed and confidently took themselves off to their different 'field' events, made up of: Standing-Long-Jump, Standing-Triple-Jump, Vertical Jump, Speed Bounce, Chest Push and Javelin.  After a short gap, the running events began: always a favourite for the Longstone pupils.  There were 2 'heats' for each race, each heat being timed, so it was important that even if they were winning their race, they should not slow down, as they had no idea how fast the other heat was!  They all ran superbly and in the over/under and obstacle races, their agility and speed was amazing.  We were dominant in the 1 lap by 2 people, 2 laps by 2 people & 1 lap by 4 people relays, with excellent technique on the 'turning boards' and efficient baton exchanges.
After another short break, we nervously waited for the results and because of the 'nature' of the event, we had no idea of where we had finished.  Mr Bethell announced the teams in 4th/5th and 6th place & we were delighted that we did not feature:  this meant that what ever happened we would receive a medal, as we must have finished in 3rd/2nd or 1st place.  We waited.... 3rd place was announced - Curzon School, 2nd place was announced - Bramley Vale School, so YES, Longstone had won the whole event and by 20 points.  We could not believe it - what an amazing achievement.  I was so very proud to watch the children go up and receive their gold medals - they certainly deserved them. 
Later, I received the break down of the results and we won all the field events, apart from the Javelin and we won 3 out of the 5 running events and were 2nd in the other 2 events - unbelievable results.
Well done to the children who took part in this event - I am so proud of you all.

Having won the Cluster event of the Netball, we went through to compete in the SSP finals.  This was quite a challenge, as the rules were slightly different, with regard to the numbers of boys and girls in the squad and the children had to rotate positions after each game:  always interesting, as you can end up playing a position that perhaps you are not so confident in.  After a slightly 'shaky' start in our first game, with a few passing errors (we were a little nervous), we soon settled down and the team displayed some excellent passing skills, team work and sportsmanship.  They won their first game 6-1 and then went on to win 3 out of the 4 other games they played, gaining confidence in each game.  The level of Netball from all the schools was very high and it was a very friendly event.  We were not sure where we would finish overall, as we did not know how the other schools had played and so we were delighted when the results were announced and we had won, 'pipping' Osmaston (our biggest rivals) and gaining 1st place medals.  The team will now go on and compete at the County Netball finals - an amazing achievement. Well done to all the players.

We entered 2 teams into this event which was a combination of a Hockey Tournament and Quad kids Athletics Events.  The children enjoyed taking part in the 4 Athletic activities which consisted of a 600m run, a 75m sprint, the howler throw and standing long jump, many of them doing the events twice to try and improve their PBs. The Hockey Tournament is always an interesting event, as the hockey is Unihoc, played with plastic hockey sticks, and as we play 'field' hockey with 'real' sticks, we have to adapt, as it is quite a different game.  This did not seem to cause too many problems for the Longstone teams who won all their games in the group stages.  The 'A' team then played against Bishop Pursglove 'A' in one semi- final and won 2-0 and the 'B' team played against Baslow 'A' in the other semi-final and won 2-1.  This meant the 'A' and 'B' Longstone teams met each other in the final.  It was a very closely contested game, with the 'A' team just clinching the win by 1 goal!  Once again a great set of results with Longstone 'A' being the winners of the whole tournament and Longstone' B' the runners up.  All the children played brilliantly and once again their sportsmanship was fabulous.  Well done!

All of the Year 5 & 6 children took part in this event, with 3 teams playing in the tournament and some children taking part in a festival of netball skill based activities, which they really enjoyed.  The level of Netball skills shown by all the Longstone pupils was extremely high and they certainly all knew the rules and their 'footwork' and passing skills were excellent.  After some great games in the group stages, it ended up with Longstone 'A' playing against Bakewell 'B' in the first semi-final, with Longstone 'A' winning 7-0.  The other semi-final was between Longstone 'B' and Bakewell 'C,' with Longstone 'B' winning 4-0.  This meant that Longstone 'A' played against Longstone 'B' in the final.  This was a very close game, but the 'A' team were just victorious with a 2-1 win and so won the whole tournament.  The 'C' team then played in a 3rd/4th play-off against Bakewell 'A' and won 2-1.  
A pretty impressive set of results, with the Longstone teams finishing in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place overall - wow!  The level of sportsmanship shown by all the Longstone children was fabulous to see, both towards their own team-mates and the other teams.  Well done to all the Year 5 and 6 children for displaying excellent netball skills and superb sportsmanship.

With the Year 3/4 Girls Team finishing 2nd and the Year 5/6 Boys Team finishing 1st in the SSP Cross Country Finals, both teams progressed to the County Finals, in which over 250 pupils from all over Derbyshire competed in.  It was a very cold, wet day, but this did not seem to bother the 'tough' Longstone pupils.  Having 'walked' the course - 1.2km for Year 3/4 and 1.5km for Year 5/6, we watched the Year 3/4 boys race and then it was our girls turn to run.  We positioned the supporting parents on different sections of the course, so that we could cheer them on.  They all ran superbly, running their own race and each one of them finishing with a sprint finish.  They all finished in the top 20 out of 64 runners, with one runner finishing in 2nd place overall and then the others finishing in 8th, 13th and 16th place.  Next was the turn of the Year 5/6 Team who also ran superbly in difficult conditions, with the icy rain blowing in their faces.  Once again, they powered through and all managed to finish strongly.  They finished in 9th, 17th, 23rd and 30th out of 54 runners.  We then waited for the presentation, not really knowing how we had done overall!  We were delighted to hear that the girls team finished in 2nd place overall out of 13 teams and the boys team finished in 3rd place overall out of 11 teams.  These results are outstanding against much bigger schools and I am so proud of how well they all ran.  I was also so impressed with how supportive they were of each other and were a real credit to Longstone School.  Well done to all of them - I am a very proud PE Teacher.

Having taken part in the CLUSTER event and won it, the team got through to the 2nd round of the Indoor Athletics Event. The team was made up of 8 pupils (4 boys and 4 girls) and after having to make 2 changes first thing in the morning, due to 2 children being off ill, the others had to adapt quickly to some changes in the events they were going to take part in.  The competition started off with all the field events first and it was great to see the Longstone pupils performing so well in the standing long-jump, standing triple-jump, vertical jump and speed bounce, securing the 'top spot' in all these events.  The throwing events - javelin and chest push proved to be a bit more challenging for us - something to work on for future events, but the children still gave it 100%.  The track events followed the field events and once again Longstone showed how strong their running is and how confidently they use the 'turning boards.'  We then waited patiently for the overall results, not really knowing where we might have finished, as each running event had 2 heats, so the fastest times got the most points, so until the end we had no idea!!  It was worth the wait, as the results were what we hoped for - we were the overall winners, with Wessington and Stanton finishing in 2nd place.  We will now go on to compete at the County Competition - an amazing achievement - well done to all those who took part yesterday.