A recent cross-country racing event for five local primary schools organised by The Castle School in Thornbury and run on their playing field, was greeted with huge enthusiasm by pupils taking part despite getting off to a damp start.

St Mary's Primary, Oldbury-on-Severn Primary, Christ the King Primary, Manorbrook Primary, and Crossways Junior School all entered pupils from Years 5 and 6.

The young runners were divided into groups and guided through a series of well received warm-up exercises by a team of Year 10 students who had recently been supported by The Castle School to take part in a sports leaders training course at UWE.

Two races took place - one for each of the Year 5 and Year 6 entrants - attracting some tremendous team efforts and impressive achievements from individual runners.

Medals were awarded to the top three runners in each event with Crossways, the school which scored most highly overall, earning the highly-coveted Castle School Events Cup.

This was the first sporting event held by The Castle School since before Covid, and was organised to strengthen sporting links between local schools and The Castle School which will be where many pupils will transfer at age 11.

Joe Docherty, head teacher at The Castle School, said: “Huge thanks are due to our sports leaders - Beth Elderton, Joe Edwards, Louis Bloodworth, Adam Jackson, Mitch Sewell, and Catalin Adronik – and to the many others from across the year groups who helped with preparations for and running of the event, including race marshals, those who provided support to runners at the finish line and our house captains for helping with results.

“I’d also like to thank Year 10 students Yareni Jacobs and Amy Hewitt who photographed the event, Alice Goodman – also Year 10 - who created certificates for the winners and Ruby Erylis-Fellows in Year 7 who was responsible for making signs for the day.

“I think we can safely say the event was a great success. It was lovely to welcome the runners from Years 5 and 6 to our school and we look forward to the next such occasion.”

The Castle School is part of the Castle School Education Trust (CSET), which also includes Marlwood School, Mangotsfield School, Downend School, Charfield Primary School, Lyde Green Primary School and Severn Beach Primary School.  

For more information about the Castle School Education Trust visit https://cset.co.uk/