The Thornton Trail

The Thornton Trail is a cross country event with a running trail around 25 acres of our beautiful grounds. 10 schools, including Thornton, local independent and state schools, participate in this competitive event hosted by Thornton. Students in Years 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 participate in runs from 1,000 - 3,000m.

Aims

The aims of the Thornton Trail are to provide an opportunity for running athletes from local competitive schools to compete together in a safe environment during a school day.

Engagement of up to ten schools and participating students in all age groups.

Participating students are the immediate beneficiaries and all schools invited to Thornton to use the school's safe course.

The event offers a competitive event for local state and independent schools to enter.

Background

The Thornton Sports Department lead on this event as an identified area to share resource among local schools.

Resources

The hosting school Thornton College required Sports Department time resource to organise such an event.

The grounds and estates team are required to set out the course around 25 acres and to tidy away.

Admin team are required for registration, GDPR and consent.

Marketing team are required for photographs and recording of the event.

Staff member is required to lead the way for each race.  Staff are required at key points around the track for safely.

The schools parking , sports hall and reception, school cafe and grounds were all required.

There is no financial contribution from participating schools.

Impact

Thornton receives informal feedback from participating schools.

There is no formal assessment of the impact of the event.

The anticipated outcomes are an increase in the available competitive events for runners in the local schools environment.

Improved aspiration, health and wellbeing.

Pupil Involvement

Four schools participating are non ISC and four schools including Thornton are independent schools.

Frequency

This event is an annual event run in mid November.

The event will continue to be an annual event.