Eight months on from its announcement, Whitworth Park Academy have opened their 3G football pitch to pupils and beyond reports William Jackson. After being awarded a grant from the Football Association and the Government’s Football Foundation at Christmas time, the school has slowly but surely constructed the field and surrounding facilities, vanquishing arbitrary forecasts and premature starts in order to enable the project’s progression.
The Football Foundation is the UK’s largest sports charity and exists to improve the experience of playing football for everyone, by championing fair access to quality facilities. The installation not only aims to revolutionise the secondary school’s PE department come the start of the new academic year, but will gift Spennymoor Town Football Club and its youth sides the opportunity to relocate back to the town for the purpose of both training and playing. Currently Spennymoor Town’s youth teams travel county-wide to train, meaning the provision of these facilities in the town will undoubtably benefit parents and children alike.
David Stone, former headteacher of the academy, speaking at the time of the announcement, believed the grant would “not only improve the sporting and curriculum provision for our school but also for the wider community of Spennymoor, providing opportunities to improve health and well-being”. The school have managed to give pupils a taster of the new pitch and have even bought their own tractor to keep the newly labelled Academy Arena in first-class condition!
Spennymoor's local community newspaper.
