On Wednesday 30th April 12 pupils from Edgar Stammers Primary School travelled with Mrs Napper and Mrs Wood to Wolverhampton University's Walsall Campus to take part in the Black Country School Judo Competition.

Edgar Stammers pupils first had judo sessions as part of the KILTS project in November. The sessions were so successful that we continued with them for 12 weeks. Five pupils (10%) have since joined community judo clubs and four have been graded up to 5th kyu (yellow belt).

This competition was an opportunity to test themselves against other pupils of a similar level of experience in a competitive situation. We held two practice sessions after school in the weeks leading up to the competition for those pupils who are not attached to community clubs and borrowed some suits and trousers from Blakenhall Community Centre.

Top (l-r) Luke Heath, Ryan Payton, Charlie Jones, Josh Stead, Natalie Halls, Josh Wood, 

Bottom (l-r) Chelsea Newman, Rhys Hunt, Callum Till, Chad Withnall, Shaun Cooper, Dion Lunt

On the Wednesday morning we set off at 9am and upon arrival were ushered through to the weigh-in area - judo competitions are fought in weight groups rather than age. Then the Stammers kids were onto the practice mat straight away. Dave Elmore the Judo Development Officer warmed the pupils up and then Wayne and Craig demonstrated some techniques which were not allowed (due to the inexperience of the pupils) and also showed everyone how the contests work so no one would be confused. Then it was on with the show! Pupils not fighting were able to use the practice area or they could watch the contests.

First up were Callum and Rhys in two separate groups but fighting alternately on the same mat. Callum started and showed some good awareness to turn a potential defeat into a victory - he rolled his opponent out of a hold down and then applied kesa gatame himself for ippon (10 points & victory).  Rhys scored a koka (3 points) for a trip and then held his opponent down with kesa gatame for ippon. Second bouts and Callum won with waza-ari awazeti ippon (this means literally 'two waza-ari's equals ippon') for a tai otoshi throw and kesa gatame hold down. Rhys won his second bout with ippon for a good tai otoshi. In the last fights Callum again won with a hold down. Rhys unfortunately lost to a very scrappy throw and hold down. This left Callum with first place and Rhys with 2nd place in their respective groups.

Next people up were Josh Wood and Josh Stead - in the same group! These two also come to my community judo club so they know each other's fighting styles very well. Josh Stead fought first in what was a very poor affair. Right at the death he tripped his opponent for yuko (5 points) and held him with Mune Gatame for ippon. Josh Wood's fight lasted 16 seconds - he countered his opponent's attack with a great O Soto Gari for ippon. Second bout was the two Josh's against each other. Once again Woody countered Josh Stead with a clinical O Soto Gari for ippon. Woody needed victory in his final fight for 1st place. Josh Stead needed victory to keep hold of 2nd. Josh Stead was up first and finished his opponent off with Morote Seoi Nage for ippon. He had guaranteed himself 2nd place. Now it was up to Woody. Once again he threw his opponent with a powerful O Soto Gari but this time it was awarded waza-ari so Josh held his opponent with Mune Gatame to win with waza-ari awazeti ippon and give himself 1st place.

After a long period of waiting around Ryan, Natalie and Chelsea were all up on the same mat in two different groups. Poor Ryan ended up with some really big pupils who were obviously older and stronger than him and he found it very hard to compete - losing all his fights in the same manner. However, he never once gave up or lost heart and he gave his absolute best in each contest.

Chelsea and Natalie were against each other in the same group. Chelsea's first fight was a terrible affair with no score and no throws - both girls appeared to have forgotten how to throw each other (or maybe they were trying to be nice to each other) The bout went to extra time and Chelsea was beaten by a low scoring trip. Natalie won her fight by default as her opponent was hurt whilst being held in a hold down. Then the girls had to fight each other and Natalie won quite convincingly holding Chelsea down for ippon. In their last fights Natalie showed some real aggression and determination to follow up a throw with another hold and win by ippon. This means she won all her fights and came 1st. Chelsea beat Natalie's first opponent with a hold down to finish 3rd.

Ryan, Chelsea and Natalie with their medals

While the girls were finishing their last fights Chuckie was starting his contest on the far mat. He fought really well and won his first bout with ippon for a really well executed Harai Goshi. In his second fight he lost narrowly to a small score but his opponent also lost his next fight - meaning Chuckie could still take 1st place with a win in his last fight. Sure enough, win he did with an ippon to take 1st place in his group. At the same time as Chuckie, Luke was fighting and did a fantastic job  - winning all three of his fights to also claim 1st place.

By this time it was 2.45pm and time to run to the coach and get back to school. 

In total we came back with five 1st places, four 2nd places, two 3rd places and one 4th place!

I personally would like to say how proud I am of the pupils. Having worked with them for the last 5 months I can honestly say they did themselves, their school, and me proud. Some of the judo was excellent and there was clear evidence that they had listened to advice they had been given and used it to good effect. Five of these pupils are attending judo clubs, and it would be great to see at least another 2 or 3 joining local clubs to build upon the basic skills they now have. 

偖 麿 振幅変調 傲然たる麿

If anyone is interested in joining a local club please contact me and I can direct you to the nearest one.

This was our second family festival of the year although 3 out of our 4 schools also took part in the Sport Relief Orienteering at Leamore Park. It was fabulous to have a 100% attendance from our schools and the weather finally started to behave like spring! 

Shaun and Liam from Edgar Stammers were determined to prove a point after being pipped for first place in the Sport Relief event by Nathan and Kieran from North Walsall.

Harden pupils after the Orienteering at Green Rock

Pupils from the four schools were sent off in groups of ten at minute intervals. An indication of how well these pupils are performing in this activity was the speed of the first pair back - Shaun and Liam from Edgar Stammers in 7mins 57seconds. Pupils who completed the course quickly were given the option of completing a pairs relay which is a different way of completing an orienteering course. 

Edgar Stammers team enjoying the sun with Mr Wake and Mrs Garbit

As winners of our family event Edgar Stammers represented the Rushall Family in the next round of the competition - against all the other family winners. They played matches against St James and Elmore Green and came second in the group. Stammers then played in the second place play off against Abbey Primary.

St James from Brownhills Family and St John's of Shire Oak Family contested the final with St John's winning 2-0. They go on to represent Shelfield in the Walsall High Five Netball Finals on 19th March at Shelfield Sports College.

On Wed 27th Feb we held the first family event of the new year - high five netball at Leamore Park. It was a real shame that due to staff illness Harden were unable to attend. Once again this became a two school challenge. Miss Price from Edgar Stammers decided to bring her whole class along, so we made three teams - Green Rock, Edgar Stammers 'A' and Edgar Stammers 'Y'! Both first choice teams played a warm up match against the 'Y' team where the scores did not count. Then came the real match. The pupils played two 10min halves with players rotating positions at half time. Rhys Hunt seemed to have found his shooting gloves in the first half after some waywood shooting in the warm up game and the pairing of Rhys and Cleo saw Edgar Stammers go into what proved to be an unassailable 5-0 lead at half time. The second half saw Stammers team change completely and Green Rock battled hard to get back into the game. Unfortunately Stammers took their chances, aided by some daydreaming in the Green Rock defence. Jared Hall scored a great consolation for Green Rock from the edge of the semi-circle but it proved to be too little too late and Stammers ended up 10-1 winners. 

Players of the Match for each team:- Green Rock - Jared Hall, Edgar Stammers - Cleo Westly-Brown

HIgh Five Netball Winners - Edgar Stammers

Following the cancellation of the first orienteering festival of the year in October all the staff agreed we would try again after Christmas. The date was set for 31st January at 2pm at North Walsall Primary School. How typical then for the forecast for this day to be severe gales and snow. The morning started with torrential rain which unfortunately led to Harden pulling out, but by lunchtime the sun was shining and there was no sign of the forecast snow or terrible wind. There were 32 children from North Walsall, Green Rock and Edgar Stammers and they worked in pairs to find the 10 control points hidden around North Walsall's school grounds. Pupils had to find the controls in the correct order and the pair with the fastest time and the least mistakes won. Of course North Walsall had an advantage and so it was no surprise that Renay Vassell and Jade Worrall in Year 6 came first with no mistakes. Second were Jai Green and Luke Heath from Edgar Stammers and third Alicia-Faye Cooper and Elle Crutchley also from Edgar Stammers and also with no mistakes. This was the first of six orienteering festivals for our family this year and I think the pupils who took part would all agree they had a great time depsite the cold!

Orienteering is a fabulous activity for pupils as it gets them running and exercising without even realising, improves their spacial awareness,map reading and navigation skills and also gets them working well with other people. Every school in Walsall has now been mapped as well as several parks and areas of common ground including Pelsall Common, Leamore Park and Brownhills Common. All maps can be found in the Document Store pages on this website and can be saved and downloaded.

Green Rock Orienteering team

Rushall Family Tag Rugby Competition

4^th October 2007 @ Harden Primary School

The festival this year was contested by only two schools – Harden and Edgar Stammers. The children played two 20 minute halves with unlimited substitutions.

In the opening period of the first half both teams were a little confused and there was much panicking and forward passing at every opportunity! However, the children listened brilliantly to all the advice being yelled to them from Mrs Napper, Mr Squire and Mr Harrison, and very quickly it started to look like a rugby match. Edgar Stammers slight edge on experience started to show and they scored a number of tries from fast breaks. Going into half time it looked as if it would be a convincing victory for Stammers.

However, some sound tactical advice from ‘rugby expect’ Mr Harrison resulted in Harden coming right back into the match with April Arrowsmith in particularly proving a real handful for the Edgar Stammers players. The tries continued to rack up with Stammers always managing to keep just in front. At the very last play of the match there was just one try between the teams. If Harden scored the scores would be level. However, Edgar Stammers broke and scored a good try to make the score 18 tries to 20.

This was a great match to referee for many reasons – the sun was shining, the grass was green and all the children had a fabulous attitude. Everyone listened really well, nobody moaned at each other, and at the end of the game all players showed great sportsmanship and went off the pitch with smiles on their faces.

Well done to Edgar Stammers who now represent our family in the Partnership finals on 11^th October at Shelfield.