Whickham School and Sports College

Whickam School and Sports College is a co-educational comprehensive secondary school covering the age range of 11 to 18+. It is located in Burnhouse Lane , Whickham, Newcastle upon Tyne , NE16 5AR. The School educates over 1600 students and has the largest sixth form in Gateshead .

The College has 10 table tennis tables along with the required nets, bats and balls to make it an ideal site for inclusion in the Premier League 4 Sport scheme. Newcastle United Football Club through their charitable arm Newcastle United Foundation and in partnership with the English Table Tennis Association and Cramlington Table Tennis Club are managing the project.

The goverment has provide funding for a table tennis coach to provide coaching and support to pupils of Whickham School during out of scool hours.

With its Sports College status the School is keen to promote all sports and table tennis is no exception. It is hoped that as well as the after school club table tennis may be included in the highly popular Easter Sports Camp which will be run over the 2 Easter weeks (excluding Good Friday and Easter Monday) begining 6 April 2010.

Pupils are invited to participate in an after school club on Mondays immediately after school. The first session provided by the project will be on Monday 11 January 2010.

For more information on the Premier league 4 Sport scheme visit the PL4S page.

A day out in Sheffield was on the table

On 6 March 2010 14 pupils from Whickham School and Sports College together with junior members from Cramlington Table Tennis Club visited the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield to watch the English National Table Tennis Championships.

Most of the Whickham pupils have been regular attendees at the after school table tennis club which meets immediately after school every Monday during term time.

Watching sport on television is all very well but nothing beats watching it live at an event. For the Whickham pupils this was their first opportunity to see top class table tennis players close up in action.

An enjoyable and educational experience was had by all the pupils and who could be seen the following Monday working just that little bit harder on their technique.

Thanks to funding through the Pemier League 4 Sport programme the excursion was supplied free of charge the pupils.

 

Who comes to the after school club

The first session was held on Monday 11 January when 11 pupils attended. Up to Monday 15 March 2010 a total of 34 different pupils took part with 124 attendances over 8 sessions. 10 pupils had attended for 5 or more sessions.

Some photo actions