SHEFFIELD EDUCATION: Small school scoops top national award for outstanding sport
A little Sheffield primary is celebrating a huge national win – being crowned Small School of the Year for Outstanding Sport.
Mylnhurst Preparatory School and Nursery scooped the prestigious gong in a glittering ceremony at the Independent Schools Association awards.
Despite having just 184 pupils on roll from Nursery to Year 6, the school boasts the British champions in biathlon, the reigning fastest schoolboy runner in Sheffield and national-standard swimmers.
Today one of its pupils travels to London to represent the Midlands in countrywide school swimming races at the Olympic Park London Aquatics Centre.
Headmaster Mr Hibbert said he was ‘on cloud nine’ following the win and described Mylnhurst as ‘a small school where big things happen’.
“The awards ceremony was nothing short of thrilling and I could not be more delighted for our PE department – Mrs Buchanan, Mr Holmes and Mrs Newton – that their dedication to providing the best and most inclusive sports provision at our beautiful little school has been recognised at national level,” he said.
“We have always known Mylnhurst’s sports provision is top tier. To have that confirmed by an independent panel of judges makes it irrefutable.”
Mylnhurst was one of only two schools in the whole of Yorkshire, and one of only six from the entire North of England, shortlisted in the ISA awards, and the only primary school in its Outstanding Sport (Small School) category.
“We were up against a through-school in Worcestershire for children aged three to GCSE, and a secondary in Leicestershire with its own football and motorsports academies!” said Mr Hibbert.
“To be crowned winner against such heavyweight competition is a truly phenomenal achievement – not just for our sports department but for our little school and our incredible staff as a whole.”
Mylnhurst, a single-form-entry school on Button Hill in Ecclesall, with its own on-site swimming pool, sports hall, and 140-year-old walled sports fields, scooped the top prize in its very first time shortlisted in the ISA awards – open to 770 schools across the country and regarded as the gold standard in independent education.
The judges said Mylnhurst’s ‘inclusive approach ensures every child participates, supported by inspirational expert staff and impressive facilities, making their widespread sporting excellence truly remarkable for a small school’.
Mylnhurst’s trio of sports teachers are all practising sportsmen and women outside school life.
Head of Girls’ Sport, Crystal Buchanan, celebrates 10 years next year as the founder and captain of Sheffield’s leading junior netball club, Sheffield Tigers.
Head of Boys’ Sport, Ryan Holmes, has just retired from captaining Sheffield’s foremost semi-professional rugby club Sheffield Tigers RUFC, running out 250 times for its first team – a tally topped in modern history by only two other players.
And Head of School Swimming, Fiona Newton, whose teaching career at Mylnhurst began in 2002, runs the school’s thriving before-school swim squad, which this year alone has seen five swimmers scouted for external clubs.
Today one of its swimmers travels to London to take part in national finals at the Olympic Park London Aquatics Centre – the same event where last year Mylnhurst swimmers secured two silver medals – and last weekend 18 children from Mylnhurst took part in the Pentathlon GB Yorkshire Biathlon qualifiers in Hull.
The school’s Year 6 boys, and Year 5, 4 and 3 girls, all took team golds, with four children qualifying automatically for the Great British Schools National Biathlon Championships in Bath next March, open to every school in the country. Last year at the same event one Mylnhurst girl scooped individual bronze and the Y6 boys won team gold.
Mr Hibbert said: “It’s not all about winning, of course. Taking part, trying your best, and having the resilience to smile and shake hands even when the results don’t go your way is at the heart of everything we teach, and what the ‘Mylnhurst spirit’ is all about.
“The credit belongs entirely to our inspirational staff and their commitment to providing opportunity, and guaranteeing inclusivity of participation, for all.
“Every child at Mylnhurst takes part in every sport, and every success – from a medal at national level to a first, nervous, swim of a width of our school pool without a woggle – is celebrated.”