Olympic stars give school a sprint start (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Olympic stars give school a sprint start

STARS from athletics and rugby helped a Durrington School to celebrate its new status as a sports college last week.

Former Olympic gold medallist David Hemery, who won his medal in the 400m hurdles in Mexico City in 1968, thrilled students and staff by visiting Avon Valley College - previously Upper Avon School - on Thursday last week.

The following day, Matt Elias, of the current Great Britain 400m relay team, was at the college and performed the official start of a sports walk day, in which all students and staff took part - celebrating fitness for life and the countdown to the 2012 London Olympics.

And on Friday evening, Salisbury's very own Emily Cook, a member of the England women's rugby team and who taught for a short time at the Durrington school, attended a ceremony to mark the school's launch as a sports college.

Emily joined Salisbury MP Robert Key, Avon Valley College principal Rowena Brookes and the college's director of sports development, Fran Ronan, on stage to hail the newly acquired status.

Ms Brookes said the event was organised to thank everyone who had helped the school over the years and supported its bid for sport college status.

She recalled how the school had been in the doldrums seven years earlier, when it was placed in special measures and how, by everyone pulling together, it had come out of special measures in a record 17 months and was now flourishing.

She said the school was better and stronger having come through those difficult times and was now confident of its future.

"We are sincerely grateful to all the people who stuck by us through thick and thin," she said.

The school's new-found confidence had been highlighted by a string of successes, including an 18 per cent improvement this year in GCSE result, which was the highest improvement in the country, Ms Brookes said.

She outlined Avon Valley's vision for the future and told how the college would be providing quality education and opening up its doors in the mornings, afternoons and evenings, at weekends and during holiday periods, to allow all members of the community to make use of its facilities.

Mr Key said what the school had achieved was truly remarkable and it must now make sure everyone knew about it. "If the school is to fly, you have to shout louder," he said. "And Durrington as a village must shout louder, too. "You are an important place in south Wiltshire.

"If other communities are shouting louder than you, their voices will be heard and yours won't."