‘Bouys’ and ‘Gulls’ and sand galore make for a great first ever Beach Day for the games.

Day 2 saw a new event for the Games descend on Great Yarmouth Beach. Not only a new event but new activities, a new venue but most importantly, new participants to the Norfolk School Games.

Over 150 secondary pupils from years 7-9 from 9 different schools across the county came prepared for a day at the beach. They all had one thing in common, and it wasn’t that they’d brought their towels or buckets and spades. It was that they were all pupils who usually aren’t the ones to travel in the school minibus to a sporting event.

These pupils got the chance to try out new ways of being physically active on the beach.

They all had a go at five different taster sessions throughout the day. The activities were a fantastic variety of different beach pastimes in order for every student to find something that appealed to them. They jumped high in beach volleyball, tackled in sand soccer, concentrated hard in petanque, struggled against the wind in kite flying and even got creative with some sand drawing.

The event certainly was a success and even the weather held out. The kids were eager to have a go and worked hard to try out all the new activities. Assistant Principal of Iceni Academy, Sarah Turner, said ‘Its been a fantastic opportunity for our students who wouldn’t ordinarily get involved in sport, allowing them to experience a range of activities alongside developing vital social skills. Kite flying was a particular highlight. I reckon it could be built into our next sports week. The whole event was really good, bring on next years’.

It was fantastic to see the pupils benefit from the event and a huge thank you to all the partners that worked together to pull it off.

Not only Active Norfolk and the eight Norfolk School Sport Partnerships, but Great Yarmouth Borough Council and the Marina Centre who’s support enabled the use of the site and East Norfolk Sixth Form College and City College Norwich who’s sports students supported the delivery of all the activities. It really was a great team effort all round.

EVENT PHOTOS  – click here