Jack Petchey - April Winner

The club's first Jack Petchey award winner was announced last night by special guest Eric Pickles, MP. Having been selected from 14 nominated, Sarah Daly received the award not just because of her commitment to working hard whilst training, but also because of her willingness to always help out whenever needed.

The session was organised by the club as a celebration for all members who had won trophies or medals during the year to date and, although not all could attend, the evening was very well attended with over 20 winners enjoying the extra training session it afforded.
Shown in the picture are National Grade 1 competitors Stephen Page, Natasha Holme and Gemma Phillips, Grade 2's Ellie Semon-Keene & Ellie Clarke Grade 3's Hannah McCann, Harry Gannon and Chrissie Law, Grade 4's Harriet Gill, Kallum Sherlock, Emma Richardson, Catherine Daly & Sophie Banks, Grade 5's Mark Hardiman, Christopher Nicholls, Rebecca Martin & Sarah Daly and Grade 6's Emma Martin, Georgia Tyrrell, Kendra Sherlock & Tegan Roycroft.

Macclesfield Grade 1 - 19th May 2007

Four of our members travelled to Macclesfield, Natasha Holme, Gemma Philips, Stephen Page and Scott Gregory, Scott in his first foray into Men's competition. All performed very well in their voluntary routines but sets let Scott and Gemma down.

Stephen finished in 3rd place though and Natasha made finals ending in 5th place - overall not a bad day.

Detailed results are available here.

Changes to session times during exams

As always at this time of year a number of our session times have changed to accommodate late running of exams in the Courage Hall. The following dates are affected with sessions running later as indicated:

Tuesday 22nd May - 15 minutes

Monday 4th June - 60 minutes

Tuesday 5th June - 60 minutes

Wednesday 6th June - 75 minutes

Thursday 7th June - 60 minutes

Monday 11th June - 60 minutes

Thursday 14th June - 60 minutes

Tuesday 19th June - 60 minutes

Wednesday 20th June - 45 minutes

Jack Petchey Scheme

This is a recognition award scheme for members aged between 11 and 25. Each month members, parents, coaches etc… will be invited to nominate an eligible member (in the age range and not a previous winner) to receive the award. The purpose of the awards are to recognise those who work hard, show commitment and other positive behaviour characteristics; i.e. it is not simply about being the best trampolinist (that’s what competitions are about) but much more about being a good person. Some winners are also likely to be invited to award ceremonies hosted by Jack Petchey himself (read more about the scheme at http://www.jackpetcheyfoundation.org.uk/)

Each award brings the club £200 in funding (i.e. £2,400 a year) to be spent on anything apart from running costs – i.e. it can be spent on new equipment, training courses etc… and members are encouraged to make suggestions to Dave about what the money could be spent on.

The first set of nominations recently took place and 11 members were nominated. The committee has agreed that the coaches will pick a winner from these nominations and the first winner has been picked and will be announced shortly. For the future feel free to make nominations when the box is placed by the door (Dave has nomination forms with the register) but only one per month per person please. All winners will receive a certificate and a ‘novelty cheque’ showing what they have won for the club and will be featured on the website and notice board.

GymMark Update

GymMark is British Gymnastics’ version of the Sport England ClubMark; a national scheme devised by Sport England to ensure that sports clubs operate in a Safe, Effective and Child-Friendly manner. Being accredited by BG is likely to become an absolute requirement in future and so your committee decided to pre-empt this and apply early (since doing so brings some funding advantages).

Having made our application earlier this year we had our first meeting with Lynsey Mealham, BG’s Regional Development Officer, on 30^th March where our basic administration and other systems were reviewed. This meting showed we had a surprisingly high degree of compliance already and so we set ourselves a demanding target of only a few weeks to complete the remaining tasks before meeting again on 3^rd May. This meeting was very successful and prompted Lynsey to comment on how quickly we had completed the tasks. Lynsey has now reported to BG who will be reviewing our detail policy documents etc… before we get a formal decision on accreditation. In the meantime we have been required to formalise and/or restate a number of policies and procedures and all members and their parents/guardians ought to familiarise themselves with them since it impacts on how they need to be prepared for training and their behaviour.

These documents are all posted on our main notice board in the corridor and on the website; please do take time to read them, the Code of Conduct and associated Dress Policy in particular is a priority.

Gateshead Grade 2 - 13th May 2007

Ellie Semon-Keene competed at her first Grade 2 competition in Gateshead yesterday. With 49 competing in her under-13 age group, many more experienced and older, it was an awesome challenge for her to take on as our lone representative. Nevertheless it was one she rose to and was lying in 20th place after an excellent set routine (scoring 21.6). Repeating her set routine for her voluntary she improved on her form score (22.1) but fell back to 28th place on tariff with an aggregate score of 46.6.

Cardiff Grade 1 - 21st April 2007

BG have yet to publish detailed results etc... however the brief report from our Head Coach suggests that our three competitors performed very well with positive outcomes:

• Stephen Page, competing in the under-15 boys put down another strong (if not the strongest he has been showing he is capable of) performance demonstrating excellent form if a little travel. Ending in 3rd place of 15 he has reinforced his international aspirations.
• Scott Gregory competing in the under-17 boys performed a good set and voluntary routine positioning him in 4th place of 23 going into the final. Had his final routine been as good as the voluntary he might well have pinched 3rd place although was more than happy keeping 4th and a good qualifying score for national finals.
• Gemma Phillips, competing in the under-17 girls, ended about mid-point in this 40-strong group. Having developed a new voluntary routine Gemma moved closer to qualification to National Finals this time, missing by just 0.2 marks although has now achieved that precious retaining score!

Brentwood Grading Results

We had some great results at the grading competition we hosted yesterday. 7 kids out of 18 entered took a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place, 5 qualified to higher grade competition, 3 were members of a winning team, 12 bettered or equalled personal best scores, 2 were taking part in their first ever competition, 3 in their first grading competition and 1 in her first grade 4. Our members results are available here.

Jack Petchey Scheme

We are pleased to announce that our application to join the Jack Petchey Awards scheme has been accepted. Members between the ages of 11 and 25 are eligible to receive the Achievers Awards and nomination forms will be available shortly to nominate our first winner for April. The money awarded by the scheme is to be spent on additional club facilities and activities, ideas are welcomed to go on our wish-list, some already received include:

• video recording and analysis equipment for training nights;
• training for additional volunteer fitness coaches;
• leotards and tracksuits.

Give your ideas to Dave who is the scheme co-ordinator.