Millburn Academy to be awarded gold status by sportscotland

Millburn Academy in Inverness, has been recognised with a prestigious national award for innovation and achievement in delivering physical education and extra-curricular sport. 

The sportscotland Gold School Sport Award will be presented to staff and pupils at the school on Wednesday 1st November at 1.45pm.

As part of the National Lottery funded programme, the sportscotland School Sport Award is a national initiative that is designed to encourage schools to continuously improve physical education and sport. The Award also encourages sporting links between schools and the communities around them.

Stewart Harris, Chief Executive of sportscotland, said: “Congratulations to all the staff and pupils at Millburn Academy - they should be extremely proud of this fantastic achievement. Not only have they put physical education and sport at the heart of their school and local community, but they have managed to do so in a way that encourages all pupils to engage in physical activity whilst having fun at the same time.

“sportscotland is committed to building a world-class sporting system for everyone, and a crucial part of that is putting young people at the heart. Working with our partners in local authorities and governing bodies of sport, we are creating closer links between physical education, school sport and club sport, which benefits young people by providing more and better opportunities to take part in sport.”

With more applications than ever before, there are currently 212 sportscotland Gold School Sport Award schools. 336 schools have been awarded Silver and 84 with Bronze.

To achieve a Bronze or Silver sportscotland School Sport Award, schools self-assess their current practice. However, to gain Gold status an extensive external assessment is also carried out by an independent panel of experts. 

Gavin MacLean, Rector of Millburn Academy said: “It’s an honour for our school to be awarded the sportscotland Gold School Sport Award. Our staff work incredibly hard to deliver high quality physical education. We believe that physical education, physical activity and sport are important factors in the school curriculum.”

The sportscotland School Sport Award is supported by the Active Schools Network, a programme that involves sportscotland working in partnership with all 32 local authorities to encourage schools to ensure there are opportunities for all children and young people to engage, participate and reach their potential in this area. 

The on-line self-assessment tool supports schools to achieve this by helping them to reflect on their current practice and identify areas for improvement. It also puts the young people in the school at the forefront of the decision making and implementation processes around sport in their school.

For more information, please visit https://sportscotland.org.uk/schools/school-sport-award/