Cross-Trust Chess Tournament Inspires Confidence and Team Spirit

Today, we hosted an exciting cross-trust chess tournament between ourselves and Oxclose Community Academy. Six students from each school were carefully selected to take part in this morning’s event, which proved to be a strong and friendly competition.

All students demonstrated excellent skills, tactics, and true sportsmanship throughout the tournament. Events like these highlight just how valuable chess can be for young people — helping to build problem-solving abilities, critical thinking skills, confidence, and team spirit.

In addition to competing, students from Oxclose enjoyed a tour around our school, giving them a chance to see how their peers spend their day and to strengthen connections between our schools.

Following today’s success, we are already planning more tournaments and hope to expand our chess programme even further. We aim to bring chess into more of our schools across the trust, providing even more students with these wonderful opportunities to learn, grow, and connect.

One student summed up the day perfectly, saying: “I really enjoyed playing against new people. It made me think harder and I feel more confident now! I can't wait for the next one.”

It has truly been a great day for everyone involved — and we look forward to many more like it in the future! Miss Gjorven and Mrs Clark are so proud of all students involved.