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Welcome to this special edition of our Principal’s regular Blog! Yes, you heard correctly, the P.E. Faculty have taken over to bring to you a sports mad commentary on all the amazing opportunities we have waiting for you at TAL. We have so much exciting news to share with you all: sports partnerships, developments with regards to our facilities, our extra-curricular, INVOLVE programme and of course, another TAL Challenge!
Sports Partnerships
Our founding cohort of students are going to benefit immensely from the sporting partnerships which have been established at TAL. These world-class organisations will support TAL staff to ensure our students receive the absolute best coaching and opportunities!
Leeds United Development Centre will be supporting our football delivery after school. Their exceptional team of staff will be providing high-quality coaching on a weekly basis – for all our students! Additionally, Leeds United Football Club have also kindly donated us our football kits. These kits will be worn by our teams in competitive fixtures.
The Leeds Rhinos Foundation are very excited about offering rugby league coaching. Their commitment to TAL also extends to tickets for their men’s and women’s matches and the opportunity for our students to be ‘flag bearers’ on the hallowed turf of Headingley Stadium at half-time of a Super League game.
Let’s Do More Basketball are excited about supporting our staff to make sure that basketball thrives at TAL. Their mission statement and passion for nurturing talent within East Leeds directly aligns with our TAL DNA. ‘Let’s Do More sessions’ take place weekly – for everyone!
East Leeds is the home to many top-performing boxers. Could you be the next? TAL students can experience coaching from a TEAM GB Olympic Coach at the Burmantofts Amateur Boxing Club gym which is adjacent to our school site. During these sessions, students will complete the GB Boxing awards.
Leeds is on a journey to becoming a world-class hub for the sport of rowing. RowUK are the driving force behind this ambition. RowUK have partnered with TAL to provide engaging rowing sessions on a weekly basis – for everyone! Using interactive technology and our indoor rowing machines, these sessions are going to be vibrant. This is an opportunity to experience something new!
Leeds Gymnastics Club is an internationally renowned organisation – their home is also in East Leeds. TAL students have the chance to take part in weekly sessions with their professional coaches. These sessions will be offsite and make use of Olympic standard equipment!
In addition to all these collaborative partnerships, the P.E. Department at TAL will provide students with opportunities to experience much more! Within our immediate proximity, there is Temple Newsam Estate where our students will take part in outdoor adventurous activities and prepare for their Duke of Edinburgh Award. Leeds Wall and Leeds Urban Bike Park are other excellent facilities that our students will have access to for indoor rock climbing and mountain biking. There is so much on offer!
All of these opportunities are open to all of our founding cohort and are absolutely free of charge!
Facilities
TAL has a F.A. accredited 3G Astroturf pitch! This is the first facility of its kind in East Leeds, and it is long overdue. Artificial grass ensures that students training sessions and games will continue in inclement weather conditions. Furthermore, we have floodlights – so our students can still shine throughout the dark Winter months. We are remarkably fortunate to have such a high-quality facility!
Our Sports Hall is equally spectacular. Four badminton courts, a state-of-the-art sprung floor, Futsal pitch markings and space for basketball and netball to flourish. We have been so fortunate to have had significant input in the development of our facilities. We have ensured that the ceiling is as high as possible to prevent any interference with play, our basketball hoops are adjustable in height and the walls are painted our desired shade of TAL purple. Our final development is something really exciting: we have recently managed to secure our very own TAL rock climbing room!
Our facilities are truly remarkable! In addition to our 3G pitch and Sports Hall we also have an ultra-modern and bespoke Fitness Suite! This facility is outstanding, and every single detail has been designed with our students’ curricular and extra-curricular pursuits in mind. We have acquired the market-leading equipment such as treadmills and spin bikes and weight and resistance equipment. There is a superb Bluetooth speaker system to allow motivational music to be played and a flat-screen TV is placed in front of our rowing machines to allow our students to take part in interactive races.
Extra-curricular and INVOLVE programme
Our department’s extra-curricular programme is varied, and extensive. We absolutely loved reading your ‘All About Me’ responses and this programme is tailored to your passions and talents. Though, we also want to expose you to something new! There is an abundance of opportunities – for everyone at TAL!
Below you will find our outlined calendar for our extra-curricular and INVOLVE programme for the 2021-2022 academic year. All activities have our TAL DNA and motto at the core. So, come along and ‘Reach Higher, See Further and Shine Brighter’.
In addition to these training sessions, TAL P.E. Department wants to promote competitions! Competitive fixtures will take place in a variety of sports. For the next academic year, we have entered the following competitions…
Leeds Schools Sports Leagues and Championships in:
Athletics, Badminton, Table Tennis, Football, Netball, Basketball, Rugby League, Climbing, Sports Hall Athletics, Rowing and Cross Country.
Additionally, there are competitive fixtures both regionally and nationally in both football, basketball and netball. Our TAL purple kits will be very visible at sporting fixtures. The opportunities for taking part in sport at TAL will be widespread and all our success will be celebrated at a prestigious end of year awards ceremony. That will be a night that you’ll not want to miss!
TAL Challenge set by Mr Lisgo and Miss Elliot!
We loved hearing about your favourite sports and activities in our past competition. Mr Lisgo loves mountain biking, so he was particularly pleased to see that some of our students share his love of cycling. Miss Elliot is the real star of this team though – her skills really are something! There is even video footage of her kicking a rugby ball into a basketball hoop from the halfway line that has been tweeted on our school account and has gone viral!
For your challenge…we would like you to show our staff your best skill with any household item.
Can you throw a teabag into a mug from a great distance? Can you do ‘keepy-uppies’ with a toilet roll?
Get creative and share your entry to our @TrinityAcademyL and @Tal2026 Twitter accounts!
Last Challenge
Our latest Science competition winners were treated to a VIP tour of their future school last weekend! We had an incredible day showing them around our new state-of-the-art building and gifting them their very own named high-vis vests.
Thank you for reading our special P.E. Faculty take over blog!
Many thanks,
Kat Cafferky