Sir Trevor Brooking opened Robert Sutton School's new £1.8m sports facilities

 

 

Sir Trevor Brooking visited Blessed Robert Sutton Catholic Sports College to officially open its new sports facilities. He unveiled the centre at 11.15am on Wednesday 3rd December at Blessed Robert Sutton Catholic Sports College, Burton on Trent, Staffordshire, DE15 9SD.

 

Blessed Robert Sutton Catholic Sports College was awarded £1.5m from various sporting organisations towards developing new state-of-the-art sports facilities, which will benefit pupils and local people alike.

 

The facilities at the site that Sir Trevor unveiled include:

• a brand new full sized 3G artificial grass pitch with floodlights and fencing
• a new changing block with 8 changing rooms, 2 officials rooms, MI room, and disabled facilities
• a coach education room and office space
• a refurbished sports hall, with a new adjoining community room, office and reception

The Football Foundation, the UK’s largest sports charity, awarded a grant of £800,000 to this project. As part of the application to the Football Foundation, the school produced a comprehensive football development plan in partnership with Staffs FA, East Staffs Borough Council, East Staffs School Sport Partnership and clubs representing Burton Junior Football League. This plan will support the development of grass roots football and has key areas to target e.g. provision of exit routes for school age pupils into local football clubs, social inclusion, women and girls’ development, training/education and health.

 

Sir Trevor Brooking, Director of Football Development, The FA commented: “This successful project is a great incentive and encouragement for pupils at Blessed Robert Sutton Catholic Sports College and also the wider community to achieve their highest goals in the field of sports. One area of focus for me ,within my role at The FA, is skills development in the younger age groups and these facilities will provide a quality and safe environment in which to deliver fun and engaging sports activity. 

 

Sir Trevor went on to say, “The commitment and partnership shown by the school, the Local Authority, volunteers and investing partners to provide good facilities and therefore opportunities is at the very heart of the ethos at the Football Foundation, and I have no doubt that the benefit of this new provision will be felt throughout the community”.

 

Paul Thorogood, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, said: “The increased capacity at these outstanding new facilities at Blessed Robert Sutton Catholic Sports College will provide far more opportunities for pupils and local people to play sport and stay fit. I am delighted that the Football Foundation is funding the new facilities with a grant of nearly £800,000.

 

“It is thanks to the investment by our funding partners – the Premier League, The FA and Government – that the Football Foundation exists to support projects such as this one in Burton on Trent. I also want to acknowledge the Staffordshire County FA’s role in enabling the football part of this development to happen.”

 

Pictured above left to right: Andy Weston, County Development Manager - Staffordshire FA, Sir Trevor Brooking CBE, Director of Football Development, The FA, Eamonn Farrel, Regional Facilities Manager, The FA

Robert Sutton, a Catholic Sports College, is a caring, high achieving school which embraces the work hard and play hard mentality. The school firmly believes that dedicating more time to PE and sport significantly improves overall achievement.

 

The school also secured an award of £160,003 towards the cost of the pitch from the Community Investment Fund; National Lottery funding that is distributed by Sport England. This money has been used to enhance the project in a number of ways, most significantly allowing the astro-turf carpet to be upgraded to accommodate multi-sports, including hockey. Other funding organisations who kindly contributed to this project were Staffordshire Environmental Fund and Burton Consolidated Charities.  

 

A second award from Sport England’s Community Club Develop Programme (CCDP) of £350,000, was made towards the refurbishment of the sports hall, building of a community room and other ancillary rooms. This facility will become a regional centre of excellence for table tennis and become the home of Burton Uxbridge Table Tennis Club.

 

Steve Town, Regional Director, Sport England, said: “The new sports facilities on the school site will make a real difference to the local community and local sports clubs, as well as enhancing the sporting experience for all the school’s students. I congratulate everyone involved the project and look forward to hearing of their sporting achievements.”  

 

Pictured above from left to right: Diccon Gray, National Development Manager, ETTA, Chris Newton, Chairman, Burton Uxbridge Table Tennis Club, Sir Trevor Brooking CBE, Director of Football Development, The FA, Tony Downey, Headteacher, Blessed Robert Sutton Catholic Sports College, Eileen Shaler, ETTC, Vice Chair – Development, Julie-Anne Weir, Director of Specialism,  Blessed Robert Sutton Catholic Sports College   
 

Tony Downey, Headteacher of Robert Sutton, said: “These new facilities will ensure PE and sport is played in first class surroundings. Enhanced facilities will enable a significant increase in sports participation. We are ambitious for the future and look forward to more developments.”

For more information contact:

 

Julie-Anne Weir
Assistant Head/Director of Specialism
Blessed Robert Sutton Catholic Sports College
T: 01283 749463 
E: pe@robertsutton.staffs.sch.uk