In April this year, we met the inspirational staff and pupils at Chandos Primary School, the most inner city school in Birmingham. Participation in Chance to Shine lit the spark for cricket to become embedded at the school, and for pupils and staff to develop a positive long term relationship with the game. Chandos PE Lead Carl Pietrzak talked about the challenges the school faced in enabling children to be active and engaged in sport. He also explained how many of these difficulties were being overcome through participation in cricket; developing new life skills and giving the children the opportunity to step out of their local community.
After such a momentous summer of cricket in 2022, with the school placed right in the heart of Birmingham between the Smithfield and Edgbaston locations for the Commonwealth Games, the WCB team felt it was time to catch up with Chandos Primary again. We were keen to find out about the impact on staff and pupils of having cricket at the Commonwealth Games on their doorstep. Carl Pietrzak’s colleague Sajid Akram was running lunchtime cricket sessions last time we spoke to him in April. We asked Sajid to provide an update on the last six months of cricket at Chandos Primary School during summer 2022. It’s fair to say, Sajid didn’t disappoint and has absolutely smashed it out of the ground with a massive six! Welcome to……
Sajid Akram’s Six Key Updates Cricket at Chandos Primary School During Summer 2022
1. Chandos Commonwealth Games – We seized the opportunity to restructure the way we do our Sports Day in light of the Commonwealth Games. We incorporated some of the sports from the Games – most notably cricket – into our new Chandos Commonwealth Games. In this way, we were able to incorporate cricket into Sports Day for the first time and make it a permanent fixture going forward.
2. Cricket in the Curriculum – We have successfully embedded cricket into our school curriculum inside and outside the classroom. Over the course of the last academic year, all 300 children in Key Stage 2 participated in cricket in one way or another. Cricket is played in our playground every break and lunchtime. Myself and my colleagues Mark and Stuart have been playing Test Matches with the Year 6 children and they have really enjoyed the experience.
3. Regional Chance to Shine Finals – For the first time ever, a Chandos cricket team qualified for the Chance to Shine Year 5 & 6 regional finals. This came as no surprise considering the fantastic work the children have been doing with the Chance to Shine team over the last 18 months. The local tournaments at Edgbaston High School Sports Centre gave the children the platform to showcase their new skills to reach 2nd and 3rd places respectively at the first time of asking. It was a fantastic achievement and gave our pupils the hugely valuable opportunity to go and represent the school externally. The Year 5 team was then able to go and represent the school in the Warwickshire finals at Edgbaston Stadium.
4. Annual Staff & Pupil Cricket Match – We ended the academic year with a staff cricket match. Each side was captained by one of our Year 6 pupils and all the children enjoyed seeing their teachers playing a ‘highly competitive’ game of cricket!
5. World Record – In May we were very fortunate to get involved, through our colleagues at Kings Rise Academy, in a successful world record attempt at Edgbaston to participate in the world’s largest cricket training session. I remember saying in April how our children didn’t know much about Edgbaston, despite it being just a mile down the road from school. The very next month 56 of our children were able to visit the stadium and take part in a world record breaking cricket session on the main pitch.
6. School Games Gold Mark – we achieved the Gold Mark for the first time this year, something we have wanted to get for a while but just fell short in previous years. We are delighted that our participation in cricket has contributed to Chandos Primary achieving this Gold Mark standard.
There has been so much cricket with the Commonwealth Games and then The Hundred that there is real buzz about it all around the school. This has definitely rubbed off on all of us – staff included! I have been fortunate this summer to take my own children to cricket matches at Edgbaston in the T20 Vitality Blast, the Commonwealth Games and The Hundred. We have also been able to meet some of the players.
As for the future, we want to continue to grow cricket at Chandos Primary School. With the support we have from Chance to Shine and the Warwickshire Cricket Board, I am looking forward to a long term relationship with cricket at the school where everyone plays and has opportunities to develop through participation in the game.