THE sports department of a school in Andover has been celebrating, having achieved the School Games Gold Mark award.

Rookwood School achieved the Gold Mark award for the fourth year in a row in 2023. The School Games Mark is a government-led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community.

As part of the application, the school was asked to fulfil criteria in the areas of participation, competition, workforce and clubs, and the team was pleased that the hard work of everyone at Rookwood continues to be recognised and rewarded.

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The school’s focus on offering opportunities for leadership and character development within physical education, as well as its commitment to ensuring physical activity and competition provision is designed to reflect the motivation, competence and confidence of each pupil were also key factors in achieving the award.

Rookwood’s head of sport, Leigh Mills, said: “Achieving the Gold Sports Mark award for the fourth year running is a testament to the unwavering commitment and dedication by the sports department in ensuring every pupil can enjoy being active.

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"Through our broad curriculum and growing fixture schedule, we have been able to expose our pupils to a wide and varied range of activities that aims to spark a lifelong enthusiasm for being active.

"The award would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of Mr Brewer, Mrs Kerrison and Mr Few. With such a fantastic team in place, we are aiming to achieve the Platinum Award next year which is something that is only awarded after five consecutive years of achieving the Gold Award.”