SANDFORD School welcomed Exeter Chiefs Community Development Manager Andrew Dudley to the school recently, when he presented the school with its School Games Silver Award.

The School Games mark is a Government-led award scheme facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to the development of sport and competition across their school and into the community.

Head Teacher Lois Briard said: “We are delighted to have been recognised for our success.”

She added: “Our accreditation is based on the level of sporting participation amongst our pupils, the amount of competitive sport our children take part in both within school and against other schools.

“We also had to show that we provide opportunities to encourage less active children to participate in sporting activities and that children have opportunities to lead their own activities and take part in after school sport.

“We have had support from local organisations to fund new sports kit for our teams to wear and we’re always very proud of the sporting values our children display towards each other and other schools. 

“In addition to all of this our whole school runs a mile every week to support our focus on physical and mental well-being.

“We even had a group of parents and staff run the Great West Run to raise money for the school. 

“A special thanks must go to Mrs Littlejohn our sports lead, Miss Wood who organises and accompanies our matches as well as Mr Keast and the team from Primary Sports who have supported our children and staff to make sport a strength of Sandford.”

During the visit to present the award, Mr Dudley spoke to the children in an assembly about the ethos needed to win the premiership.