A VIRTUAL sports day has taken place at Nunnery Wood High School.

July 10 should have been the school’s annual sports day, combining athletics, cycling, softball, curling and many more activities.

The PE team were desperate not to miss out this year and so they created a virtual sports day event that would involve nine different challenges that could be completed by students at home instead of at school.

This event ran from Monday July 6 to July 10 and students were invited to take part in as many challenges as possible.

There were a range of challenges on offer to students, such as speed bounce, standing long jump and a coordination catching challenge.

Tom Kempster, head of P.E said: “It was fantastic to see the engagement from students in this new sports day format with over 1000 entries to the challenges.

“The main aim was to keep students active and engaged in physical activity, therefore it really was about the taking part and getting involved.

“For the more competitive students, this may have been about personal improvement with some students submitting numerous times for the same challenge demonstrating excellent progress and showing that practice and hard work really does pay off.”

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A celebratory event also took place virtually this year with the school’s annual awards presented electronically.

Awards were presented for each subject through teacher nominations for overall achievement in a specific subject area.

There were also awards for those students who have worked consistently hard throughout the year across all of their curriculum subjects and additional awards were given this year to students who have been nominated by their teachers for their exceptional efforts during the lockdown period.

Students with the most number of merit points were also recognised in each year group.

The Adam Hussain Memorial Award as voted for by students and staff recognises students’ contribution to the community.

This provided an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of some of the school’s most dedicated and hard-working students.

Each student who received an award was contacted via email and congratulated by a video message which was given by head teacher, Steve Powell and also by their head of year.

Georgie Lott, who organised the virtual event said: “This year has been slightly more challenging to organise but it has still been a very humbling experience to hear about the amazing achievements of our students.

“Congratulations to all of those students nominated in this year’s celebrations.”

Mr Powell added that it was always a very difficult job for staff to single out students from amongst such a wide range of talented young people.

He added: “It’s important to remember that we are looking for high attainment or skill in subjects but also recognize creativity, effort and perseverance since they are just as much a part of our ethos.”