GYMNASTICS - Once again we have been busy this term, training hard to prepare for a series of Gymnastic competitions.

Way back in January, our children began weekly training to stretch limbs, develop body confidence, learn new skills and rehearse short routines. Sessions took place early in the morning for the Year 5&6 Gymnasts, while the Year 3&4 children travelled to UCC each week to use their facilities and receive help from some young Gymnastic Sports Leaders.

Mrs Clark and Mrs Greenwood were delighted with the commitment and dedication shown during these sessions and watched everyone progress so much during a short period of time. We then had the difficult job of selecting teams to go forward and represent our school in the Eden Valley Schools Sports Partnership Gymnastic competition.

The first round was held at Penrith Leisure Centre in February when we had three teams entering, two in Year3/4 and one team in Year5/6. There are three levels to this competition, Key Step 1 for infant children, Key Step 2 for Year 3&4 children and Key step 3 for Year 5&6 children. All three levels of the competition have 3 disciplines:

BODY MANAGEMENT; a series of training exercises to show strength and flexibility. FLOORWORK; a short routine which includes a number of different Gymnastic skills such as rolls, turns, cartwheels etc. The final element is a VAULT.

Each gymnast performs and are then scored individually, scores are then collated to give a team result. Penrith schools stole the show with our friends Brunswick winning the Key Steps 1 competition, the Y3&4 teams of North Lakes taking 1st and 2nd place in the Key Steps 2 competition and our Y5&6 team winning the Key Steps 3 competition. We were all delighted with our first round success and were determined to work hard to perform well in the following round.

More hard work and training continued for a few more weeks before we went off to the Eden Final, this time at Appleby Grammar School, and now competing against teams from the wider Eden Valley. Many parents and grandparents travelled to Appleby to help transport children and support us. A special thank you must go to Lexi's Mum and Mrs Collins for braiding and sparkling our hair, we did look very professional and we are sure this helped us perform so well! Once again competition was tough and tension was high as results were announced but, at the end of a very busy afternoon, we were all so proud to find our success had been repeated in both competitions with another 1st and 2nd place for the Y3&4 team and a 1st place for the Y5&6 team. So it was official we were Eden Valley champions in Gymnastics! A remarkable achievement and an award for the many hours of hard work from our talented Gymnasts.

As winners we were invited to represent Eden at the county finals on 3rd April, when competition promised to be even more challenging. We knew we would have to use all of the 5 Rs to perform at this level. On the day, at Penrith Leisure Centre, our gymnasts were fantastic and competed with the top 6 schools in the county. We were very proud to come 4th in the Key Steps 2 competition (Y3&4) and 5th in the Key Step 3 competition (Y5&6) and we were the only school in the competition to have two teams to reach the final! Many congratulations to all our Gymnasts - Maddie B, Aimee Jo, Rianna, Mackenzie, Ben, Leah, Lexi, Harvey R, Jessica, Layla, Ruby, Megan, Chloe, Harry and James E - we are so proud of you!