A beautiful sunny day greeted the five schools arriving at Henfield Cricket club for a feast of cricket. A round robin competition that tends to be dominated by the hosts St.Peters and St.Andrews, Steyning looked likely to end in a fight betweeen the big two. As the games progressed Upper Beeding put themselves into third place. In the final games the wooden spoon game was decided on the last ball as Ashurst were leading by one run only for Jolesfield to bowl out the batsperson to take fourth place.
The final saw St.Peters bat first recording a fairly low total due to some excellent bowling and fielding by St.Andrews. St.Andrews started their innings well and looked to be coasting to victory. A sudden flurry of wickets changed the game and suddenly St.Peters had the upper hand. They held on to win. A happy coach, Mr Berger, seeming to think his Aussie roots had rubbed off on his little poms.

Awful weather greeted the athletes and it was touch and go whether we would go ahead. In the end it stopped raining and a rather soggy athetics competition got under way. Some magnificent performances on the track and in the field abley officiated by the Year 9 athletes who had performed the day before at the Novices.
The closest competition was the Year 6 Boys were St.Peters, Henfield held on for the win, the year 5 girls, year 5 boys and year 6 girls all went to a very strong St.Andrews team.

Overall result
4th Jolesfield
3rd Upper Beeding
2nd St.Peters, Henfield
1st St.Andrews, Steyning

All five cluster schools turned up this week for the year 5&6 Swimming Gala at Steyning pool. The schools competed in individual and relay races with the winner set to represent the area at the Horham schools Gala later in the term. There were some outstanding individual performances from Tegan Jenkins ( St.Peters ), Harry Neale ( St.Andrews ) Toby Underwood ( Jolesfield ) and Pippin Allbright ( Upper Beeding ). In the end the relays were dominated by one school which mean't overall victory for St.Andrews Steyning, with Upper Beeding finishing second and Jolesfield third.Many thanks to Paul Blyth from Horsham council and Atlantis swimming club and the Steyning sports leaders for ensuring a smooth running event.

What a busy week, after recovering from their exploits in the pool the cluster came together for the popular and noisy indoor athletics. All four teams were primed and ready to go. It became obvious that it was going to be one of the closest finals yet with different schools winning different age groups and also that St.Peters after a couple of disappointing years were back in the groove. A high level of skill reflected well on the pupils and staff who prepared them. The closest competition came in the year 6 boys were for the first time we had a tie with Upper Beeding and St.Andrews sharing the titile, St.Peters took the year 6 girls and year 5 boys. The year 5 girls was a one horse race with St.Andrews taking the title.
Overall Results as follows:
4th Jolesfield 284
3rd Upper Beeding 318
2nd St.Peters 349
1st St.Andrews 360

Congratulations to St.Andrews and a special thankyou to the Steyning sports leaders who kept the event running smoothly throughout.

This event organised for the cluster by Ian Ford from Horsham District council featured a matchplay competition for more experienced players and a skill station competition for pupils new to the sport. The skill stations included a robot machine that fired table tennis balls at an alarming rate at the pupils who had to try and get them back over the net. The eventual winners of the skills tournament were St.Peters C team with Jolesfield E team runners up. The matchplay tournament was quite close with the exception of the winning pair. Both players Robbie Woodward and Chris Barnett are both playing on the Sussex circuit and Robbie has been county number 1 for several years. With Upper Beeding winning for the second year running, a major shock saw Jolesfield B team beat Jolesfield A team to take second place. Many thanks to Ian for his organisation, coaching and equipment which made for an excellent afternoon for all.

This week saw the first meeting of the Steyning cluster sports council, the Bronze Ambassadors from all five feeder schools met at Steyning Grammar school. The group got to know each other and discussed what they would be doing over the coming months. The pupils were very enthusiastic and are looking forward to their new roles.

The Year 3 and 4 Rounders teams decended on Steyning Grammar school for their annual festival. The rain held off and the competition began in cold cloudy conditions.Last years winners Upper Beeding began badly losing their first game to St.Andrews in the opening year 4 game. St.Andrews also started well in the year 3 competition and when they beat the only other undefeated team St.Peters by 9 to 4 it was obvious that they were going to take the titile. The Year 4 competition seemed to be heading the same way until St.Peters beat St.Andrews which meant that Upper Beeding both had 3 wins, when rounders scored and conceded were added up they were the same too so both schools share the title and trophy.
Well done to all who took part and especially the referees / scorers.

The year one pupils from the cluster have been taking part in a series of multi skills Festivals testing their abilities to the full. Initial training in school on how to do the events was followed by Intra school based events. Next came our cluster competition. When we realised how many year 1's we had we split. Firstly Upper Beeding traveled to Steyning, 12 mixed teams had a very close competition and lots of fun. The second competition saw Jolesfield travel to St.Peters, Henfield, this one was even closer with the winning team only 2 points ahead of the second placed team. A big thankyou to the Year 6 sports leaders for helping to score and encouraging their teams. The pupils had a great time and are looking forward to the next event.

This festival was set up by the level 3 Higher Sports Leaders at Steyning Grammar in partnership with the Enable Me Project based in Littlehampton. Pupils from a broad spectrum of physical and learning difficulties enjoyed a morning of wheelchair sport including Football, Basketball and Curling supervised by the Enable Me coaches and sports leaders.
The event was a great success and was thoroughly enjoyed by all the pupils, it is hoped to make this an annual event in the future.

All Key Stage 2 classes underwent Speed Stacking training this week with a view to beginning an inter class Intra competition. The school has invested in its own equipment and will be setting the pace for the inter school cluster event later in the year. The pictures show the pupils training before testing themselves under pressure against the clock. The gauntlet is down!!

N Roberts SSCo Steyning