Matlock students are good sports for Commonwealth

Sporting students have been chosen to represent the country at an international games event.

Highfields School, in Matlock, has been named one of only ten winners worldwide in The Commonwealth Class competition in the build up to this year’s Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

As a prize, pupils from the school, which is part of the Rural Derbyshire School Sport Partnership, won a trip to Glasgow, where they were invited to address schools from across Scotland in the celebrations at a special event at the Science Centre in Glasgow hosted by John Beattie, BBC broadcaster and former Scotland rugby international.

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Nine Highfield students and school sport coordinator Jayne Allen met Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma and displayed their work.

Mrs Allen said: “We spent an amazing day in Glasgow and I was very proud listening to our team captains Annabel MacGregor and Oliver Walden answering the questions put to them about their experiences on the project. It has been a brilliant journey for the students and, as I said on stage, a third of the world’s population live in the Commonwealth and half of those are under 25 so it is very important that we have the opportunity to understand the values of the Commonwealth.”

The group of Year 11 GCSE students from Highfields have been taking part in weekly online debates and work on collaborative projects within a team other schools from Africa, Canada, the Indian subcontinent, and the Caribbean.

They are being mentored by Paralympic swimmer, Susie Rodgers, winner of three bronze medals.

The Commonwealth Class is a partnership between the BBC, the British Council and the Commonwealth Secretariat bringing together schools in Britain and the Commonwealth.

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