Downey House Return To Sport

Aim

Downey House PTA's aim is to bring back after school sports activities and competition for ALL pupils.

Who are we?

We are the PTA of Downey House Prep and Pre School.  We are situated in the extensive grounds of Pirrie Park in East Belfast, which were acquired in 1932 by Methodist College Belfast, and Downey House, one of two Houses in the Preparatory Department, was opened shortly afterwards

Why are we crowdfunding?

Downey House`s School PTA aims to increase participation in after school sports and activities by expanding and enhancing our current program. We will offer kids of all ages the chance to stay after school and be introduced to and participate in a wide variety of new sports and activities.

Over the last few years sporting activities within the school have been impacted significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic resulted in a significantly restricted PE and after school sports programme which has  impacted our  children’s health and wellbeing.

We want to kick start our after  school sports programme, by introducing  and creating new  opportunities for children and teachers to get involved in new sports that they may have never tried before,  as well as providing  a  competition element  within school and against other schools. We want to run during our spring and summer terms a series of multi sport after school sports sessions to get children back into sport after covid, involving sports such as bowls/ gymnastics/ boxing/ dance.

This allows  the school to build and re-establish effective relationships with the communities they serve through the medium of sport and many children pursue a community-based sport; for some, this may lead to elite amateur or professional sport.

How we’ll spend the money raised

Our target for fundraising is £10,000. We know it's ambitious, but feel we can get there with our support and it will help to improve sporting opportunities and activities for the pupils for many generations 

Funding will go towards the following items which will benefit all age groups within the school.

- introduction of new sports such as Gymnastics, Dance, Indoor Bowls, boxing

- Sports equipment. We will purchase equipment such as tricycles for gross motor skills, target equipment for refining accuracy and large parachutes for group activities and problem solving.

- Gymnastic equipment for core strength, coordination, thinking skills and risk assessment.

- Speed agility and quickness equipment, to include training ladders, agility hurdles reaction balls and fitness dice

- Introduction of forestry trail to enhance the pupils outdoor experience

- To upskill and educate our staff to ensure they can develop pupils. 

- Forge links with MCB to enable Sports Science students gain hands on experience via mentoring from Staff

- Enable a return to competitive sport through an invitational tournament hosted by Downey House

Your pledge in supporting our School will be hugely beneficial to the sustainability of Downey House, ensuring we can continue to develop pupils to the highest standards.

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. If you want to run your own fundraiser to support us, maybe a sponsored activity or similar, use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!

This project successfully funded on 10th May 2023