The winners from the three Walsall Partnership High Five Netball Finals met at Shelfield Sports College to decided upon the Walsall High Five Netball Champions. These were: representing Streetly Partnership and reigning Walsall High Five champions Cooper and Jordan Primary, representing Willenhall Partnership Barcroft Primary, and representing Shelfield Partnership St John's CE Primary.

The three schools would all play each other whilst observing strict High Five rules of position rotation. 

Coooper and Jordan played St John's CE Primary in the first game and won handsomely, they then went on the comprehensively beat Barcroft meaning that the final game of St John's CE vs Barcroft was meaningless. For the record St John's beat Barcroft to finish second.

Congratulations to Cooper and Jordan for reclaiming their title of Walsall Hive Five netball Champions. Well done to St John's and Barcroft for reaching the finals and for their fine effort and sportsmanship.

Walsall High Five Netball Champions Cooper and Jordan Primary School

On Friday 14th March 2008 we welcomed 6 local primary schools to Leamore Park in Blakenhall to participate in an Orienteering Mile (well, more like 2 miles to be honest!) to raise funds for Sport Relief. 

Schools arrived at hour intervals and had around 45minutes to complete the course which zigzagged backwards and forwards around the park. 

• Leamore Primary
• Harden Primary
• Edgar Stammers Primary
• Blakenhall Juniors
• North Walsall Primary
• St James Primary

The weather stayed fine and the sun even shone in the afternoon! A great time was had by all. To read a more detailed report of the day and to see the photos click on the sport relief logo below.

Pupils from Blakenhall Junior School 

This year's High Five Partnership Finals were held at Leamore Park in Blakenhall for the first time. Leamore Park has had a considerable amount of money invested in it's facilities and now boasts a newly surfaced netball / tennis area as well as a pavillion including a kitchen and male & female toilets so it was perfect for our festival.

The seven winners of the family festivals were:

• Chuckery (Blue Coat Family)
• St James (Brownhills Family)
• Edgar Stammers (Rushall Family)
• Pelsall Village (Shelfield Family)
• St John's (Shire Oak Family)
• Abbey (Sneyd Family)
• Elmore Green (Walsall Academy Family)

These teams were divided into two groups: Group A - Abbey, Chuckery, Pelsall Village & St John's and Group B - Edgar Stammers, Elmore Green, St James'

All schools played the other schools in the group with the third and second placed teams in each group playing off for positions and then a final between the two group winners to decide the Partnership Winners.

Goals were few and far between in the first few games but thankfully a few teams found their shooting gloves before the festival had finished. By the time the group games had been finished it was clear that Pelsall Village would play Edgar Stammers in the third/fourth placed play-off and Abbey would play Elmore Green in the fifth/sixth placed play-off. Chuckery finished in seventh place.

Scores:

Pelsall Village 3-1 Edgar Stammers

Abbey vs Elmore Green - did not play as Elmore Green had to rush back to play in the Walsall High Five League

St James and St John's were to play in the final.

The final was a closely contested game but St John's were able to take their chances when they came and ran out 2-0 winners. Special praise should go to Jade Davis of St James' who played extremely well throughout the tournament and whose play was commented on by several teachers!

St John's CE Primary - Partnership High Five Netball Winners 2007 - 2008

St John's will now represent the Shelfield Partnership in the Walsall High Five Netball Finals - against the winners of the Willenhall and Streetly Partnership Finals - to be held at Shelfield Sports College on Wednesday 19th March at 4pm. We wish them all the best and hope they can bring the trophy back for the Shelfield Partnership!

On Thursday 7th February pupils from schools across the whole of Walsall gathered at the Gala Baths for the first Walsall Sports Partnerships Swimming Gala. 

Teams were selected from the winners of individual events at the three sports college Partnership Swimming Gala's. As there were so many individual pupils from different schools it was up to parents to transport their children to the baths - and it was great to see so many mums, dad, grandparents and other family members supporting their children! 

Events were the same as in the Partnership Gala's - front crawl, back crawl, breast stroke, butterfly, 4 x 33m freestyle relay and 4 x 33m medley relay - all as single sex races. 

All events were closely contested with much determination - not to mention great style - displayed by all competitors.

At the final points count the winning Partnership was Streetly, followed by Shelfield and then Willenhall. 

Congratulations to all pupils who contributed to a great evenings' swimming.

Shelfield Swim Team

This is the first time the Partnership has run a swimming gala and judging by the success of the events so far it will definitely continue! Five of the seven families held their own festivals. Pupils competed in single sex individual events of front crawl, back crawl, breast stroke and butterfly. There were then 4 x 25m freestyle relay and 4 x 25m medley relay - again boys and girls separate. The school with the most points won the overall event. In addition to this, individual winners from each event would then represent their family in the Partnership Gala. 

Winning schools from the family events were:

• Brownhills:              Watling Street
• Shelfield:                 Ryders Hayes
• Shire Oak:               St John's
• Sneyd:                     Mossley
• Walsall Academy:    Elmore Green

Everyone returned to Brownhills Community and Technology College for the Partnership Finals on Tues 29th January to see which family would be overall winners. Once again, individual winners would go through, this time to represent Shelfield Sports Partnership in the Walsall Schools Swimming Gala on Thurs 7th February at Walsall Gala Baths.

The poolside was packed with parents, teachers and SSCo's and of course lots of excited (and nervous) children. The standard of races was very high with each swimmer comfortably completing their length in a competitive time. Races were run in two heats so no one could afford to take it easy. Even if they won their race comfortably the next heat could be much faster. All the families were very closely matched and going into the final relay there was one point between the top two families - Brownhills and Shelfield.

Of course there can only be one winner and in the end after some careful checking it turned out to be Shelfield Family with children from Ryders Hayes, Greenfield, Pelsall Village, Rushall JMI and St Michaels. Well Done to them and good luck to everyone who will be representing the Partnership on 7th February.

COME ON SHELFIELD!

Action from the boys Back Crawl

Walsall Judo Festival

  On 16^th Nov over 50 secondary pupils from the Shelfield and Willenhall Sports Partnerships came together for a judo festival. It was an opportunity for everyone who has receieved coaching from Wayne McDonald or Dave Elmore to come together, learn some new techniques and also properly contest for the first time.

  The day started with some fun warm ups and then revisited the throw tai otoshi (body drop). After this we looked at three different turnovers when in groundwork which would prepare everyone for that situation when contesting.

  Before lunch Dave and Wayne ran over the rules of contesting: to win a fight you must throw your opponent flat on their back for ippon (10 points). If you don’t throw them onto their back you will be awarded a lesser score depending on where on their body they land: waza-ari (7 points), yuko (5 points) or koka (3 points) and you must continue fighting. This is when you may end up doing groundwork and trying to hold your partner on their back for 25 seconds. If you manage to hold your opponent for 25 seconds you will be awarded ippon and the contest is over.

  After lunch those people who wanted to fight were paired off – Shelfield vs Willenhall. Each pair had a 2 minute contest and the majority of the fights were won by ippon with some really good throws demonstrated and also some very strong holds.

And the final result – well, lets just say Willenhall were no match for Shelfield!

  Many Thanks to Wayne and Dave for organising a wonderful day and well done to all the students who performed so well. If you fancy giving it a go Wayne runs an extra-curricular judo club at Shelfield Sports College on Tuesdays after school or why not pop down to Walsall Campus on Gorway Road on Tues 6.15-9.15 or Fridays 6.15-8.30, or come along to Blakenhall Community Centre on a Monday 4.30- 5.30.  

The winners and runners up of Shelfield, Streetly and Willenhall Sports Partnerships met at Walsall Rugby Club on 18th October to decide who were the Walsall Schools Tag Rugby Champions. The prize on offer was a chance to represent Walsall in the RFU Staffordshire Schools Tag Rugby Tournament while the runners up will represent Walsall in the Balck Country Youth Games in the Summer '08.

The standard of rugby was very high and behaviour was also exemplorary from all pupils. The winning team was Old Church Primary from Darlaston Family in the Willenhall Partnership and the runners up were St John's from Shire Oak Family in our Partnership. Well Done to both teams and we wish them luck in the next round of competitions.

Partnership Tag Rugby Finals

The Partnership Tag Finals were held at Shelfield Sports College on 11th October and organised by Mrs Barnett's Year 12 & 13 Step into Sport Volunteers. 

Congratulations to St John's CE Primary from the Shire Oak Family who won the festival, runners up Chuckery, and third placed Brownhills West. All three went forward to represent Shelfield in the Walsall Schools Tag Rugby Finals at Walsall Rugby Club on 18th October.