The annual school sports day took place on Monday 16th June and to everyone’s relief, the day dawned warm and dry.

An event like this demands a great deal of planning and preparation and staff and pupils alike had been hard at work during the preceding weeks under the excellent guidance of Mrs Hannah MacKechnie who, in the absence of a P.E. teacher, had taken on the task of organising the day.

This year we were keen to recognise Glasgow’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games and this, coupled with the challenge of low pupil numbers in the Secondary Department, led to the idea of devising a whole school Commonwealth Games event. Mrs MacKechnie met with Primary Department teachers and Will Wright, our Active Schools Coordinator, and after much discussion and exchanging of ideas, the Commonwealth Games Obstacle Race was born.

The race incorporated all ten of the compulsory Commonwealth Games sports including hockey, boxing, swimming, athletics, weight-lifting, rugby and badminton. Some imagination and creativity was required, e.g. the boxing aspect of the race involved climbing through a box and our aquatic event involved carrying a cup of water to a basin with the team collecting most water winning extra points! In order to take account of the range of ages taking part, pupils in P.1-P.5 competed in the race first, with pupils in P.6-S.6 running a more challenging version afterward.

We were delighted that some parents and carers were able to attend the Commonwealth Race which took place during the morning of Sports Day. Primary pupils had painted flags representing various Commonwealth countries and these were displayed on the fencing around the all-weather pitch. It was good to see so many pupils putting in lots of effort and also displaying good teamwork by supporting and encouraging the other members of their teams. Every pupil taking part earned points for their House and at lunchtime pupils received a Gold, Silver or Bronze (coloured) medal for their efforts.

The afternoon brought with it the more traditional races and those members of the community who were able to come along enthusiastically cheered on the participants. The Flat, Potato and Spoon, Sack, Three Legged and Wheelbarrow races were followed by Relay races and Hockey and Football Dribbles. Before the grand finale, the Tug of War, took place the adults were given their chance to show off their sporting prowess – congratulations to Mrs Hannah MacKechnie and Mr Edward Campbell who carried off the honours!

We would like to extend our warmest thanks to everyone who helped to make this important day such a resounding success; to the families and friends of the children, to the Parent Council for organising a delicious range of ‘eats’, to all members of staff and to all of the children who practised hard beforehand and who gave 100% on the day. We are also sincerely grateful to Mrs MacKechnie who put in so many hours of hard work in order to ensure that everything ran smoothly and successfully. To you all, thank you, and we look forward to seeing you at Sports Day 2015!