BUDEHAVEN School combined with Launceston College to host the Cornwall Schools Games Finals across the two schools on Friday, June 30, writes Budehaven’s joint leader of learning of PE, Kirsten Hilton.

Friday, June 30 showcased exceptional sporting talent and leadership skills from across the county. Budehaven School worked with the Cornwall Sports Partnership to provide a Level 3 competition for many sports in primary and secondary school age groups.

The event was hosted over two sites — Launceston College and Budehaven Community School. At Budehaven, there were approximately 1,000 competitors competing in their finals in sports such as rounders, basketball, gymnastics, dance, badminton, girls’ rugby and multi skills. These were led by over 250 Budehaven leaders. As well as the sporting competition, there was an athlete’s village, which was organised and run by over 100 additional Budehaven leaders and school staff.

These stalls included face painting, a smoothie bar, a languages café, a photo booth, skate competition, cakes and coffee provided by the Friends of Budehaven, graffiti walls and a geography mural, which identified through finger prints the location of all competitors across the county.

The remainder of the Budehaven School students were actively involved in bespoke workshops including History, STEM, English and an opportunity to tour the games.

The day before the games, the weather tested our organisational and logistical skills! However, it did not put a dampener on our enthusiasm and execution of the games. We made the decision to move the opening ceremony into the netball and tennis dome and this was certainly the right move. We woke up to heavy showers on Friday morning but once in the dome, you wouldn’t have known as the atmosphere was electric.

The stage was continually providing entertainment in the form of bands, singers, steel and samba bands, dance performers and mass Zumba routines whilst schools were arriving!

All of this was compered by Lisa Wood; our local and exceptionally talented fitness instructor. At 11am the dome was a sea of area t-shirt colours and the opening ceremony began with a blast of confetti. James Dundon from Heart FM compered the next 30 minutes. Our headteacher Tracey Reynolds (headteacher) welcomed everyone to Budehaven School while Mia Wray (Budehaven School), Barney Nancekivell (Kilkhampton Primary School) and Tom Jewell (Launceston College) were selected to read the athletes oath. They did an incredible job; it must have been extremely nerve-wracking but they all should be very proud of themselves; we certainly were of them.

Budehaven Voices then sang beautifully prior to then going to Lake Garda for their tour. Former Budehaven student and Team GB windsurfer, Izzy Hamilton, gave a motivational speech, telling the competitors to ‘kick, run or push that little bit harder’. Pennants were then given to each school’s sports captain. This was designed by Phoebe Boundy and Luka Talajik-Sims (Budehaven School). Lisa Wood closed the opening ceremony with a mass warm up.

All leaders and competitors embraced the values of the Cornwall Schools Games; determination, respect, passion, self-belief, honesty and teamwork. Certain sports such as rounders and rugby braved the elements but it did not wipe the smiles off their faces. Meanwhile the indoor sports demonstrated the talent and passion the young people had for their particular activities. Chuffy, the games mascot, joined us for the afternoon and the medal ceremonies. Whilst the sporting events were happening, there was a lot going on in the background. Year 10 students catered a bespoke Cornish lunch for our VIPs who were also looked after throughout the day by our fantastic group of VIP student leaders. The student media team captured results, comments and photographs which were continually updating Twitter. Sixth-Form students, Avril Lynes and Tom Mitchell-Ford were our schools’ roaming reporters for the day. We have seen a sneak preview of their reporting skills on the school games video that has been created, but not yet released.

As part of the cultural aspects of the games, we created and held a secondary photography and primary poetry countywide competition in the months leading up to the games.

The entries we received were amazing and are currently on display in our PE department for all to admire. Indie Houghton (Stratton Primary School) wrote a poem titled ‘A Cornwall Champion’. She read this out loud to our VIPs during their lunch and the CEO of the Youth Sports Trust, Ali Oliver, was blown away, so much so, Indie has been invited to read her poem at the Youth Sports Trust’s conference in Telford next year.

Fern Paton (Budehaven) captured an exceptional shot over the looking the cliffs along the Cornish coastline of her sister riding a bike and won a GoPro style camera.

We would like to say a big thank you to all that helped the games to happen. This was the seventh year of the Cornwall School Games and we were delighted to host it after five years of campaigning that coming to North Cornwall was not such a long way!

We are extremely grateful to the University of Exeter, Falmouth Campus and Sport England for their generous sponsorship. Also, the external coaches and staff that allowed the events to happen and of course, everyone here at Budehaven Community School.

Ms Armstrong and I would like to say what an amazing achievement it’s been from all of our students and those across the county. For those who competed and led at the games, you were truly epitomizing the games values and those of the Budehaven Way. We are so proud of you all. Continue to embrace sport in whatever way you can; this will develop you as grounded young people and give you the fundamental skills to carry through into later life.

There was success for both primary and secondary schools from the Post area.

At primary school level there were gold medals for Bude School and Delabole while there were also two top three finishes from St Minver and Stratton.

Teams from Bude, Callington and Launceston all won medals in the secondary school competition with Bude earning a gold, silver and bronze, Callington a bronze in the Year 9 girls’ indoor rowing and Launceston three silvers and three bronze medals.

The highest-placed team from the Post area in The Helen Glover Primary Champions Race 2016/17 school standings were Bude School in tenth, while Budehaven Community School also ending as the Post area’s highest-placed school in The Jack Nowell Secondary Champions Race with Launceston 16th and Callington 21st.

For a full list of all of the results from each school and event, visit www.cornwallsportspartnership.co.uk/cornwallschoolgames/results-qualifiers