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London Youth Games

HF pupils among the best in the west.

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Hammersmith & Fulham has gained its best recent placing in the London Youth Games - moving up 12 places in the overall ranking for the annual sporting championships.

The borough was 16th overall out of the 33 London boroughs, compared with 28th last year. This is the second most improved placing in the capital and puts the borough above almost all of its west London neighbours.

Pictured with the mayor, Cllr Charlie Treloggan, are (front row, left to right) members of the borough's bronze medal-winning volleyball team Jan Bogdanowicz, 15, Andre Veiga, 17, Marek Badowski, 17, Luke Bogdanowicz (captain), 17, Peter Wojcik, 16, Paul Henry, 17, Ruairi McDowell, 17, and (back row, left to right) bronze medallists from the borough's five-a-side football team Ruairi Teatum, 14, Charlie Tillman, 14, Aaron Morgan, 14, Alfie Whitbread, 14, Tyler Hanley, 14, and Kane Godden (captain), 14.

The success of young athletes, who competed in events ranging from volleyball, table tennis and martial arts to football, cricket and angling, was celebrated at the Mayor's Parlour, Hammersmith Town Hall, yesterday (Wednesday) when the mayor, Cllr Charlie Treloggan, congratulated medal winners on their success.

Among the successes which contributed to the borough's overall rating were:
· third place in the boys under 17s volleyball
· third in the boys under 14s five-a-side football
· two golds and a bronze medal in karate
· a silver medal for butterfly in the swimming
· three golds, three bronze and a silver in the disabilities swimming.

The young people who competed attend state and independent schools in the borough or live locally and the borough squads and entries to the games are co-ordinated by the council's sports development team.

The dramatic improvement in the borough's performance comes as moves are under way to develop school and community sport - with two new council sports development workers being taken on earlier this year.

Their role has been to help schools, after-school play centres, youth groups and local sports clubs to make the most of the five new multi-use sports pitches which have been created at two local parks and three schools with more than £800,000 from the New Opportunities Fund of the Lottery.

The borough's mayor, Cllr Charlie Treloggan, said: "This is a tremendous result and our best in recent memory. Our success is due to the hard work and talent of all the young people who represented Hammersmith & Fulham in the London Youth Games as well as the support and encouragement they received from their parents, the council's sports development team, local schools and sports clubs, including Westside Basketball Club, Fulham Swimming Club and Brunswick Boys' Club. We believe our expanded sports development team and better facilities played a big part in improving the standard of squads we entered this year and I am delighted that some of these young people will be able to compete again next year - and hopefully bring us more sporting success. This really gives us something to build on."

In September the council will launch another programme to boost school sport. The three-year school sport co-ordinator programme, run with £488,244 government funding, will employ a partnership development manager and two sports co-ordinators to work with the council and local schools to provide training and development for PE staff in secondary and primary schools; further develop less established sports, such as hockey, table tennis and tag rugby, and open up school sports facilities for wider use by all schools and the community.

July 18, 2004

Serious Fun on Saturdays helps pupils to shine

Pupils from Hammersmith & Fulham and Richmond primary schools celebrated the success of a pioneering Saturday school by taking part in a week of activities, ranging from textile design and drama workshops to sports and maths.

The celebration event followed a ten-week programme for pupils from 14 state primary schools in Hammersmith & Fulham and three state primary schools in Richmond.

The Saturday school classes, called Serious Fun on Saturdays, are run in partnership with two independent schools - Latymer Upper School, in Hammersmith, and St Paul's School, across Hammersmith Bridge, in Barnes. The project is funded by the educational charity SHINE: Support and Help in Education, which has given the Saturday school a three-year grant.

Mopelola Haruna, 11, from Brackenbury Primary
School (left), and Elizabeth Ogunfidodo, 11, from
Lena Gardens Primary School
during the textile design session.

The independent schools supply their teachers and facilities and the sessions are co-ordinated by Hammersmith & Fulham Council's Excellence in Cities (EiC) team in partnership with Richmond Council.

The council's EiC team uses government money to run a range of extra activities in schools and out of school hours for pupils who need extra challenges.

Serious Fun on Saturdays alternates between Latymer Upper School and St Paul's School, allowing pupils to take advantage of the high quality facilities at both schools.

Last week, St Paul's School hosted a week of events for pupils who have successfully completed the ten-week programme. The children covered different projects each day, based on their work during the previous ten weeks. These included:
· building towers, helicopters, cranes and boats out of card
· producing colourful textile designs and mosaics
· writing, dance and drama workshops with a visiting author and dance group
· traditional sports, including sack races, egg and spoon races, relays and three-legged races.

The children all received their certificates of achievement on Friday (9 July) at a presentation ceremony and barbecue, attended by parents and representatives from both councils, the participating schools and SHINE.

Serious Fun on Saturdays begins again in January and is due to be opened up to more schools.

Yvonne Burke, primary advisory teacher from Hammersmith & Fulham Council's EiC team, said: "The Saturday school has been going amazingly well. The pupil turnout has been brilliant and they have done some really incredible work. We have a magazine which goes out to parents and headteachers to involve them and primary headteachers were invited to the celebration week to see what the pupils have been doing.
The Saturday school is currently focusing on year six children but the aim is to involve year five pupils as well. We are due to open it up to more schools when the classes start again in January."

Cllr David Williams, Hammersmith & Fulham Council's deputy for education, said: "This is a really exciting and innovative programme, which stretches our most able pupils and gives extra support to children who need to raise their levels of achievement.
We are grateful for the support from the SHINE charity and the independent school teachers who lead these wonderfully engaging classes.
The Excellence in Cities programme provides a wide range of extra creative and academic opportunities for students, which help to raise their aspirations."

Stephen Shields, SHINE chief executive, said: "SHINE is serious about raising the achievement levels of children and young people through programmes which seek to engage and motivate them.
We took an active part in helping to develop this project and we are delighted that it is off to such a great start. All those involved in the programme delivery work very closely together and we hope that it will become a benchmark for excellence in independent-state school partnerships."

Kieran Murray, Annoh Brobbey and Chloe Letch,
who are all aged 11 and from
St Peter's Primary School