Slice of London 2012 coming to Trafford (From Messenger Newspapers)

2012 Olympics coming to two Trafford schools

9:41am Thursday 20th January 2011 in News By Robert Downes

LONDON may well be the focus of the 2012 Olympics next year, but Trafford will get it’s piece of the action when the party arrives in the UK next year.

For not only was Stretford High among 45 UK schools picked to take part in a special international school partnering project in the lead up to and during the Games, Broad Oak School in Partington this week learned it has been selected as a training camp for sportsmen and women taking part in the football events.

The Games’ football tournament will be contested at stadiums around the UK, including Old Trafford, and on Tuesday the London Organising Committee selected Broadoak’s playing fields as one of only two venues in Greater Manchester where teams can practice.

Committee chairman Lord Sebastian Coe said: “The facilities at Partington will be a fantastic training venue ahead of the London 2012 Games – it has excellent training facilities and playing fields. I know that Trafford will give the competitors a warm welcome and will ensure that their start to the London Games is as wonderful as it can be.”

The football tournament at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing featured players such as Argentin’a Lionel Messi, Brazil’s Ronaldinho m,and Ivory Coast and Chelsea star Salomon Kalou.

Broadoak headteacher Andy Griffin said: “We can’t thank the committee enough - this is fantastic news. The Olympic Games connection will inspire more pupils to engage in sport and aim for the dream of competing professionally.”

Meanwhile at Stretford High, PE teacher Mark Richardson was last weekend at a special conference in London where details of the BBC and British Council inspired school partnering project, called the Olympic Dreams School Search, were fleshed out at the two day conference, which was also attended by pupils from all schools taking part.

Stretford High has been partnered with a school in Pakistan and will soon welcome a delegation of staff and pupils from the Habib Public Secondary School in Karachi later this year, and in return will send its own delegation back next year.

“Over the two days we received a crash course in successful and sustainable partnerships, while the pupils worked together to exchange ideas and develop leadership skills as ambassadors for the project,” said Mark.

“Everyone at the school is very excited and we expect to learn a lot about our different cultures from the partnering.”

Earlier this week staff and pupils from Habib made a whistle stop visit to Stretford to say hello before returning home.

Added Mark: “They were very interested in the courses we do here. There the schools are much more academic and pupils go on to become doctors and lawyers. They were very interested to see how we taught IT and music as well as how the staff interacted with the pupils.”

Anyone wanting to learn more about the twinning project can visit bbc.co.uk/worldclass