It has been an exciting year of football so far for the pupils of Cherry Grove Primary School in Boughton.

Both girls and mixed squads were in action recently as they represented Chester in the English School’s Football Association’s Cheshire Finals.

The girl’s team, lead and organised by Year 6 pupil Sophie Welsh, earned a spot in the finals by winning the local schools tournament, with the mixed squad getting through to the finals as runner’s up in local competition.

Both teams performed well at the finals putting in good showings against Cheshire’s top school teams. The girls were knocked out at the end of the group stages with the mixed squad progressing to the quarter finals, where they suffered a narrow 3-2 defeat putting them out of the competition.

PE and school sport coordinator Carl Jones said: “It has been a fantastic year of sport so far for Cherry Grove, not just in football, but in all aspects of sport at the school.

“We set a focus this year to try and simply increase participation in sport. We always want to do our best but it was important for us to get involved with more of the activities available to us. We have done a great job of this so far and the children are really benefiting from it as you can see with the football. We are creating a fantastic attitude to sport throughout the school and we hope this is something that will stay with our pupils for life.”

The school sport structure at Cherry Grove has been boosted by the Government‘s PE and school sport (PESS) premium funding which provides dedicated funding to improve PESS in schools.

Mr Jones added: “This funding has been a massive help in raising the profile of school sport. I has allowed us to continue our link with the school sport partnership who do an outstanding job and to work closely with local company C.E.P.D, ran by former PE teacher Judith Gilmour, who work with our staff and pupils to improve teaching and learning throughout the school.”

Cherry Grove Primary School mixed football team