Just when we thought our sports success this term couldn’t get any better our Year 7 and 8 Panathlon students have ‘bowled us over’ with their performance at the Salford XTEND Multi Skills Event hosted at at Irlam and Cadishead High School.

The Salford wide event involved indoor sports activities including bowling, cricket, football, basketball, curling, darts and throwing activities. Our students excelled across all the activities and their amazing efforts saw them beat the other eight participating Salford High Schools to be crowned ‘Panathlon Champions 2022’!

Our student Panathlon Team on the day and pictured above were; Bradley Taylor Parkin, Colby Avison, Thomas Woodcock, Amelia Carruth, Georgia Mai Bertram, Holly Cummings and Neveah Aldridge.

What an amazing performance everyone…well done!

Last week a group of our Year 8 Students who are members of Manchester United Foundation Hub Officer, Adele Howarth’s ‘Social Action Lesson’ took a morning trip down to Clifton Primary School to make Christmas cards with some of their Year 5 pupils.

The girls had to come up with the activity to help benefit the community and wanted the younger pupils have the opportunity to make Christmas cards and then later in the month deliver them to elderly people in a local care home.

For the past two weeks we have been honoured to welcome Year 11 Senior Prefect Naomi Bande into every one of our Year Group assemblies to deliver a speech prepared by herself as part of her English coursework titled ‘There is barely any racism in the UK’.

Black History Month ran throughout October, with this years’ theme of ‘Time for Change, Action not Words’.

Black History Month is not just a month to celebrate the continued achievements and contributions of black people to the UK and around the world. It’s also a time for continued action to tackle racism, reclaim black history and ensure black history is represented and celebrated all year round.

Naomi’s assembly took place later than planned due to our Mock Exams sessions but we were wowed by the maturity and powerful content of her speech. Naomi spoke passionately to our students about her personal experiences of racism and the positive steps she feels have been put in place to address inequality in our academy.

An excellent and thought-provoking speech Naomi, well done. We are all so proud of you.

Massive congratulations to our Year 7 boys’ football team (again!) who have brought the bragging rights back to Co-op Academy Swinton with a 6-0 victory against Co-op Academy Walkden’s first team!

Our whole team played amazingly with a hat-trick from Sylvester Kisula, two goals to Jake Mundy and one goal to Liam Hodges. All the boys were so pleased and proud to have won this derby with everyone, including Mr West, singing ‘Swinton are the greatest’ for the entire journey home!

The match against Walkden was part of the Salford Football Cup Tournament and our win means we are now progressing onto the champions part of the cup. Keep en eye on our website and social media to follow their success in the coming months!

Our talented team are: Callum Farnie, Sylvester Kisula, Liam Hodges, Oscar Smith, Amir Ahmadipour, John Preston, Callum Norris, Mason Sharp, Liam Donoghue, Leo Delaney, Noah Lees, Marcus Moyo and Matin Etehadpoor.

Adele Howarth, Manchester United Foundation Officer couldn’t hide her pride when she found out;

I’m so proud! The boys did us proud again! They are going to be amazing. Well done Mr Leyland and Mr West! “Swinton are magic everywhere we go…”

Assitant Headteacher Mr Stanley said;

This is fantastic! Well done to the team and also to our Manager, Mr Leyland and his Assistant Mr West!

Last week a group of our students took part in the very first ten-pin bowling competition as part of a new partnership between Co-op Academies Trust and Panathlon.

Panathlon is a national charity which gives young people with disabilities and special educational needs every year the opportunity to take part in competitive sport. This maiden Manchester competition is just the beginning for what Panathlon will provide for SEND students in our academies with more opportunities to come. Our Trust wants to offer competitive sports opportunities for everybody, particularly those who need them most. It’s about removing barriers and providing chances for children to fall in love with sport and competition.

Along with four other Co-op Academies Trust schools, our Co-op Academy Swinton team performed fantastically well and enjoyed the experience immensely. Our students were accompanied by Assistant Headteacher, Mr Stanley, who commented:

I came here with a certain amount of guilt at leaving staff behind, but when you’re here looking at the children’s faces, you realise this is really important and any sense of guilty disappears. From a social and wellbeing point of view, this is having a really deep impact. It will make them feel a much more significant part of our community because they are representing the academy. I really hope this is something that will grow and develop even more. 

Congratulations to our Swinton Team who excelled themselves with their determination, enthusiasm and exceptional behaviour representing our academy. Congratulations also to Co-op Academy Failsworth who were crowned champions!