The first ever Salford primary schools’ curling event was held at Irlam and Cadishead Leisure Centre and was “a massive success”.
Primary schools across Salford attended the event which was hosted by School Partnerships in Salford (Salford SSP) with Panathlon.
The 16 primary schools in attendance was able to provide opportunities for young people with disabilities across the UK.
The Salford SSP run almost all sport in primary schools in the city, running over 30 sports, including an action sports championships, the biggest ‘Let Girls Play Football’ event and a lacrosse event, which are all happening just this week.
Dean Gilmore, partnership development manager said: “It was a great success, we will definitely repeat it. Curling came from working with Panathlon, and we’ve had a carousel of events with them.”
Dean continued: “The schools have just loved it. They thought it would be something they’d want to do a bit more of, so we invested in some equipment and we’ve shown schools what a great game it is to play and that was proved today as they’ve had a lot of fun.”
The event has allowed children to take part in a sport that is notoriously hard to regularly play and practice, with only a handful of ice rinks that facilitate curling in the UK – with the nearest for Salfordians being almost 40 miles away from the city at the Flower Bowl in Preston.
Team GB were immensely successful in the sport at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, with a gold for the women’s team, as well as a silver for the men’s team.
Gilmore continued: “We discuss what sports we can do on an annual basis with the schools and we’re always looking at new and innovative sports to introduce.
“For example next week is our first wrestling event, which we introduced pre-COVID as a test, which was really popular.”
And the innovative sports have been trialed as Dean added: “We did flag football and the first time we did that we literally just made it up and it was massive in Salford primary schools.
“We do a real mix, and we do traditional sports and we do non-traditional sports it is very much led by what the schools think would be a good offer for their young people.”
It’s our first ever Salford Kurling Event with @Panathlon at Irlam & Cadishead Leisure Centre. Delighted to say we are running at capacity too! @YourSchoolGames pic.twitter.com/kWs6SZ1TAE
— Dean Gilmore (@SportMattersDG) March 4, 2025
The group are self-funded but work with all primary schools in Salford and are based at All Hallows High School, this year marks the 25th year that School Partnerships in Salford have been running events for children across the city and some celebratory events are set to be planned.
Recent Comments