Stanhope Primary earns platinum award as dodgeball team reaches finals again

Stanhope Primary School in South Shields ended June with a platinum School Games mark, and the timing told the story: the recognition came in the same week its dodgeball team headed to the national finals for the fifth time. That combination of an award and a return trip to the sport’s biggest stage put a hard number on the school’s progress, not just in one team but across the whole sporting programme.

Headteacher Adam Rodgers said the school has changed dramatically since he arrived, moving from limited sporting opportunities and basic equipment to a place with a genuine competitive identity. That shift matters because the platinum mark is not handed out for a single good run. It reflects years of sustained participation, wider opportunity and competitive success, the sort of foundation that makes a fifth finals appearance feel less like a one-off and more like the product of a system.

Dodgeball is the most visible part of that system right now, but it is not standing alone. Stanhope pupils also hold county champion trophies in athletics, netball and basketball, evidence that the school has built depth across multiple sports rather than leaning on one specialist team. That breadth is exactly what gives the award weight: the School Games framework rewards schools that improve engagement, leadership and opportunity for a wide range of pupils, including those with special educational needs and disabilities.

Rodgers also pointed to the culture behind the results. The children, he said, take pride in representing Stanhope, and sportsmanship is built into the way they compete, whether they win or lose. That detail helps explain why the dodgeball team’s repeated trip to national finals and the platinum award belong in the same sentence. One is a competition outcome, the other is a measure of the habits that produce it.

For Stanhope, the message is clear enough. The school has turned sport from an add-on into part of its identity, and the platinum mark now sits beside a dodgeball program that keeps getting back to the final stage.