To celebrate a very successful year of sport, pupils at North Lakes School have designed a new kit, which was launched in school on Friday 9th January.

“The children at North Lakes enjoy participating in a wide range of sports, supported by the Eden Valley Sports Partnership,” says Mr Pincombe. “We also look to learn lessons from sport that we can apply to other areas of our learning”.

In a programme of assemblies, based on “Secrets of Success”, and the “5Rs” - (resilience, risk taking, resourcefulness, relationships, reflectiveness) - the children have learned from some famous role models in sport. In November, Peter Murphy, ex Carlisle United captain and Wembley goal scorer, spoke to the children about the value of hard work, self-belief and having a dream. This month the school was visited by two South African Academy rugby players, Sanele Mtembu and Jarrett Crouch.

Sanele and Jarrett are currently playing at Penrith RUFC and we are grateful to Stuart Mills and Nigel Beaty for introducing them to us. They spoke brilliantly to the children about resilience, overcoming barriers, learning from mistakes and seizing opportunities. The children came up with a list of questions which they asked in the assembly and were delighted to hear the answers straight from the players.

2014 was a hugely successful year for sport at North Lakes. A variety of talented pupils from the school won the Eden Valley competitions for football, boys’ cricket, Key Steps 2 and 3 gymnastics, indoor athletics, hockey, mini tennis (shared with Stainton), and tag rugby (shared with Kirkby Stephen). They also achieved well in other events including netball, girls’ cricket, and trampolining. In the autumn term, to celebrate recent successes, the children were involved in designing a new kit online, with the help of supplier “Raging Bull”. The winning design was chosen through a vote organised by the School Council and reflects school colours.

We are very grateful to our kit sponsors, KMI and the Wordsworth Bookshop. KMI Plus (Kier Construction, J Murphy and son and Interserve plc) are a water contractor for United Utilities delivering an upgrade to the wastewater treatment works at Penrith. The Wordsworth Bookshop in Penrith has very good links with the school and we are very happy to promote reading while we play!

At the kit launch, pupils modelling the kit were joined by Peter Murphy (footballer), Sanele Mtembu, Jarrett Crouch and Stuart Mills (Penrith RUFC), with sponsors Samantha Maidment (KMI) and John (Wordsworth Bookshop).

Secrets of Success is a publication by educational consultant Chris Quigley.