Year 7 student Matthew Hood is an expert BMX rider, and recently took part in a number of competitions. After several medals for the U10 and U11 Novice categories, his latest medals and most recent two trophies were in the U12 Expert category.
Here are some photos of his awards and him in action in Preston and Braintree. Well done Matthew!
Year 7 student Finlay McIntyre competed in the North-east Athletics Grand Prix on Wednesday night in the 200m category – he came first with a time of 26.8 earning him a Grade 1!
He is now the Number 1 200m runner for the North East in the Under 13 category which places him in the Top 12 in the entire country.
A great achievement for Marden PE and especially to Finlay, well done!
Year 10s are presented with the trophy for NUFC Foundation’s ‘School of the Year’
Since October, a group of Year 10 students have been taking part in an ASDAN Five-A-Side Football programme run by NUFC Foundation, an independent charity supported by Newcastle United Football Club, the Premier League, Sport Relief and backed by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.
The Enterprise Academy teaches 11 to 19 year-olds the basic principles of business and self-employment using Newcastle United as a real life case study. The programme helps students understand jobs, professions and career options and delivers programmes that are innovative and fun.
After successfully working with Marden in delivering the course, project coordinator Gavin Ferry and his team invited us to the annual celebration event held at St. James’ Park, attended by 14 schools and over 250 participants.
The Foundation chose Marden High as their School of the Year, and the Year 10s were presented with a trophy, a plaque and photographed with the SkyBet Championship trophy won by Newcastle United last season.
It was a great effort for the students to attend the event on their day off from school, and credit must go to them for their consistent hard work throughout the year that has seen them worthy winners of this prestigious award! Well done Marden High!
Year 9 student Remy Van Breugel is a talented skiier. On Saturday 1 July he competed in the English Championships in the Snow Zone in Castleford, finishing 2nd in the Under 16 category.
Marden students Callum, Libby, Kyle, Jasmine, Ben and Joel (not pictured) were all part of the winning teams at this regional badminton event.
Barcelona Football Festival is an international youth football tournament for boys, held in Salou and Cambrils area in the south of Barcelona. A high quality tournament designed to provide unforgettable days of football and fun – on and off the field. Our Year 8 student Peter Whitehouse took part and wrote about his experiences:
Barcelona Tournament May 2017
We fundraised for a year so that Whitley Bay Sporting club U13 Blues could join in with one amazing tournament; the Barcelona Football Festival 2017.
We arrived in the Whitley Bay team bus and immediately looked at the perfectly cut grass of the academy of Salou. We turned up overheated and needed twenty 2 litre bottles each day, whereas our rivals (The Indonesia National Team) had their under armour on in 28 degrees; it must have been chilly for them!
Our first clash was the Indonesian team but unfortunately we had the disadvantage of being a year younger so every tackle they won. Our next match was a French team that we beat with a comfortable win of 4-0. Barca had brought some of their own physios down and they’d set up a tent for free massages down the back of your legs. Very welcome!
We all then looked at Iceland who we were due to play next and thought back to the Euros when Iceland managed to beat England. We got out onto the pitch and got into our huddle as always and our captain suggested we stay strong. With some aggressive tackling, we got shown two yellow cards before smashing the ball for a goal; 1-0. Two minutes after second half it was 2-0 and we were winning every 50/50. We won the stamina race as well scoring another after a wild free kick that went out of the ground. With the result of 3-0 it was clear that at least one English team can beat Iceland.
Next day we turned up for the quarter finals. We were warming up passing the ball around when we saw a band of drummers wearing neon yellow and they were drumming for the home team. We passed the ball around the back four to tire the other team out until our left back saw me running up the wing. I was through, on-side and one on one with the goalkeeper until their defender took a lunge at my ankle and took me off my feet. At first I thought the ref hadn’t given anything but he gave us a free kick. Our free kick went wide and we got back into formation, then our goal came from a straight kick from our goalkeeper and I took a touch and drilled it across the ground to our striker’s feet. 1-0!
At half time the drums were drumming an anxious beat as they knew we were the better team at 1-0. Their tactic was to take it to penalties at full time. They scored with a few minutes left and we thought they’d achieved their aim; but an amazing goal from our striker straight from kick off muted those drums that had been going for the full 40 minutes. 2-1.
Indonesia won and we came in 4th place in the Under 14s tournament. It was the best experience of my life – Barcelona Football Festival!
Peter Whitehouse, June 2017
Congratulations to Year 9 student Robert Gonsalez, who recently won the 2017 Clay Rabbit Shooting trophy at the BASC (British Association for Shooting and Conservation) Mitford Championship. Here he is posing with his trophy. Well done Robert!
Here at Marden we are massively proud of Year 9 student Josh Harrison, a talented footballer who has signed a two year contract with Newcastle United Academy.
Josh has been training with both Newcastle United and Sunderland in recent months and has recently played at St. Andrews (the home of Birmingham City), Elland Road (Leeds United) and the Stadium of Light (Sunderland).
Here he is pictured signing his contract with NUFC Academy Head of Recruitment Glenn Craggs. We wish him all the very best for what promises to be an exciting future ahead! Well done Josh.
Our Year 7 student Josh Blevins has enjoyed some great running success recently. Here he described his experience at the London mini marathon:
“The London mini marathon was a great experience. I ran as part of a team of 6 boys chosen from across the North East. We were competing against other teams from across the U.K. The race started at the 23 mile marker on the actual marathon course and set off at the exact same time as the marathon.
We set off on the race which was over 3 miles long. Starting at Old Billingsgate, we then crossed London Bridge, then all the way down past Upper Thames Street and on to Victoria Embankment. We then swung round opposite the London Eye down past Westminster and opposite the Houses of Parliament. We then ran all the way down to Buckingham Palace down to the finish line on the mall where there was thousands of screaming people and the sound of ‘Chariots of Fire’ playing in the background.
I finished in 26th position out of 300 others with a new P.B of 17:01 (for 3 miles) and team North East Finished in 3rd position. I will never forget this amazing experience and will look forward to try and train hard to get in the team again next year.”
Many congratulations to our senior girls’ badminton team who became Regional Champions in the new national league tournament in Middlesbrough. They will now go to the National Finals in Milton Keynes later this term. An excellent achievement.
Year 10 students Libby, Jasmine and Makenzie.
