Written by: Alan Dewhurst Head teacher at St Maries Catholic Primary. 
In the Summer term, St Marie’s Catholic Primary School committed itself to joint training days with St Wilfrid’s School in relation to implementing a new Literacy programme. The only two days that were available to us were Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th September! We quickly realised that this was not going to be popular with parents, their children having only just started school again at the beginning of September after a long Summer holiday.
We contacted LINKS about the possibility of running two ‘Sports Activity Days’ at school, and they were brave enough to say that they would organise something for us. It was difficult to know whether anyone would take up the offer of two days of sport for their children, at cost price. However, we went ahead and drew up a programme that included a ‘Breakfast Club’ and a variety of activities throughout the day, ending around 5.30pm.
We were gratified to find that 25-30 pupils were booked in for each day, and they were able to access high-quality coaching in a variety of sports from the LINKS coaches. And they thoroughly enjoyed it! Parents were very grateful that such an opportunity had been presented to the children, and it was a great help in ensuring that days off work did not have to be taken.
Our thanks go to the LINKS coaches for their adaptability and resourcefulness (especially when a few extra children turned up!). We hope to repeat the opportunity on another occasion.