On Monday 2nd December, our Key Stage 3 football team travelled the short distance to The Triangle Leisure Centre in Burgess Hill to represent Woodlands Meed in the annual Albion Cup competition.  On arrival we were informed that this was a record breaking year, with 13 schools participating!

Our group was an extremely competitive one, with the majority of matches being decided by a single goal.  We started strongly, recording a hard-fought 2-1 win in our opening match against Cornfield, and this became a common theme with our fantastic footballers being victorious in their next three matches against Hillpark, Freyen College and Philpots.  Our final group match against league leaders St Marys ended in defeat, but we still finished second in our group. 

We deservedly progressed to the semi-finals where we met an extremely strong LVS Hassocks side.  It was not meant to be as our superstars eventually succumbed to a 4-0 defeat.  However, our students should hold their heads up high as I can’t remember the last time we were in the semi-finals of the Albion cup, and they can take great heart from the fact that the two defeats our students suffered where by the two schools who fought it out in the final!  Finishing third out of thirteen teams is something they should all be very proud of!  Every single one of our 9 players played their part but special mention must go to Kielen in goal who made some brilliant saves and encouraged his teammates throughout, James for making his debut and proving that he is an absolute goal machine, and Alfie for his never say die attitude.

 However, our player of the tournament was Fin who proved to be an absolute beast on the pitch; breaking up play, executing some tough tackles and making countless driving runs forwards, he was always supportive of his teammates and proved to be a manager’s dream!

Well done everyone, we are so proud of all of you!

River class made their competitive debut as they represented Woodlands Meed at the annual Get Active event held at The Dolphin Leisure Centre in Haywards Heath.

Students had the opportunity to experience a range of different sports and activities which included gymnastics, basketball, cricket, and taekwondo but the firm favourite was most definitely skateboarding!  Students were taught different skills and even some tricks!  The students threw themselves (literally!) into it which was a pleasure to see.

Well done River Class, you were an absolute joy to take off-site and it was great seeing how you all participated in so many sporting activities, many of which were unfamiliar. Awesome!

The fantastic Choir & Ko have donated almost £2,500 to Woodlands Meed. The local choir meet every Wednesday evening at Woodlands Meed School Site and have fundraised for Woodlands Meed previously and many other local good causes. 

Fundraiser Anna Hull was invited to a recent choir rehearsal and was presented with an amazing donation. She said  "We all at Woodlands Meed are truly grateful for the generous ongoing support of Choir & Ko and this wonderful donation. It was a real pleasure to be able to come along to your meeting to thank you in person and see what a dynamic group you are. Thank you so much. A decision on what the Choir & Ko donation will fund at Woodlands Meed will be made in the near future and I hope I can return to let you all know how your fundraising has made a difference at Woodlands Meed."

Fundraising like Choir & Ko’s makes a huge difference to Woodlands Meed.

Amazing Woodlands Meed Grandparent, Dawn Fahy ran the Great North Run recently, raising funds for Woodlands Meed.

Dawn joined the record number of runners who took part in this year’s AJ Bell Great North Run, which saw tens of thousands of runners complete the famous 13.1 mile course from Newcastle to South Shields.

The showery and grey conditions didn’t dampen Dawn’s enthusiasm and the 60,000 other runners following in the footsteps of 1.3 million runners before them taking part in the 43rd Great North Run.

Dawn said ‘This was my 12th great north run and I have raised funds for several charities over the years, the last one was Ambitious about Autism two years ago.’ 

‘We are just so happy that my Granddaughter Leah has settled at Woodlands Meed. She seems very content and is making progress and I wanted to help fundraise for all the great extras Friends of Woodlands Meed provide for the School and College that help all the children like Leah. ‘

Fundraising like Dawn’s makes a huge difference to Woodlands Meed and all the things we can do to enhance our pupils learning environment and experiences. Every penny raised goes to fund projects at Woodlands Meed School and College that benefits our pupils.

https://www.justgiving.com/page/dawn-fahy-1725978106978

We are delighted to announce that we, Woodlands Meed, have achieved the School Games PLATINUM Award for the 2023/24 academic year. The School Games Mark is a Government-led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success.

Our sporting achievements this year include:

- Hosting our own JOLF festival: 145 children participated including every primary, PMLD and SLD class at Woodlands Meed, and SEN students from 5 other locality schools, who for the first time, had the chance to participate in an event wholly suitable for their needs. The event was run by Neil and supported by 38 sports' leaders from Burgess Hill Academy, and Woodlands Meed school and college sites.

- 100% of all students experienced an intra-school event!

- 97% of students represented the school in an inter school competition; a massive 30% increase from last year!

- Greatest number of medallists at The Parallel Youth Games

- Ever single student from both our school and college sites who benefit from using a chair participated in the annual Albion wheelchair football festival!

- 100% students received at least one type of training from an external coach. These include AITC, JOLF, Sussex Cricket

- 12 Students trained as sports' leaders; the most ever!

- The greatest number of students completed Bikeability; with 73% receiving on the road training, which is a record!

- Three highly successful and inclusive sports' days

- 100% families have access to weekly physical activities that can be performed at home and thus contributes to their daily active 30

With a record of young people competing in local inter-school competitions this year, we are extremely proud of our pupils for their dedication to all aspects of school sport, including those young volunteers, leaders and officials who made our competitions possible.

As part of our application, we were asked to fulfil criteria in the areas of participation, competition, workforce and clubs, and we are pleased that the hard work of everyone at our school has been rewarded this year. A special thanks to: Albion in the Community, Burgess Hill Academy, Friends of Woodlands Meed, JOLF's Neil Plimmer, St Pauls and Sussex Cricket!  We couldn’t have done it without you!

We look forward to our next academic year where we hope to celebrate another fantastic year of sport at WM!

Wednesday 22^nd May 2024 may not be of great significance to the majority of the country, but for Woodlands Meed this is the date that everyone has been looking forward to for months; it is the date of the annual Parallel Youth Games!  Almost 50 students from Key Stage 3, accompanied by 18 staff, travelled to The K2 in Crawley to represent Woodlands Meed at this amazing event which gives young people with a range of additional needs the opportunity to compete against their peers in a sporting arena. 

Our students represented the school in 9 different sports which included street soccer, boccia, table cricket, tennis, swimming and dance.  There were so many successes with lots of students making their competitive debut’ at the games, some were representing Woodlands Meed for the very first time and some were trying new inclusive sports.  Medals were won in boccia, tennis and in the pool, games were won in street soccer, cricket and NAK, but what makes us most proud is quite simply…our students.  Yes they are competitive, yes they want to win, but our students recognise that there is a much bigger trophy on offer, and that is the opportunity to not only enjoy playing sport, but to enable others to enjoy it too.  I am proud that our students were the ones who applauded another school for scoring their first ever goal, that our students congratulated other children when they finished their race no matter what position they finished in, that our students were the ones who picked up others and offered them a supportive comment when they were feeling disappointed.  This is why The Parallel Youth Games, and sport in general, is even more important for our students, it helps to build bonds, create friendships and develop our young people into compassionate adults who, although competitive, will always recognise that there is something much more important than just winning.

Pen Gittins

Woodlands Meed HLTA PE Specialist