Northwich mums get together to hold their own sports day

Sarah Flaherty said she had been left feeling frustrated that she and other parents would not be able to attend Lostock Gralam Primary School for their reception aged children's sports day, due to Covid restrictions.

Not wanting to miss out on what would have been another first in their children's lives, she got together with Emma-Jade Shepherd and other mums on a Facebook messenger group and arranged to hold their own in a nearby park after school on Monday (June 28).

The action packed hula hoop race 

Sarah said: "We'd obviously had a chat with the school and they'd advised us that due to their own risk assessment and guidance from Public Health England that we can't come into the school and watch the children do their sports day.

"And because it's our children's first time with being in reception, we didn't want to miss out.

"So I just thought about it and as I'm already in a messenger group with most of the other mums, we suggested we should hold our own.

"We all pick our kids up from school and we all live in and already go to the park afterwards anyway, so we just thought about throwing our own sports day into the mix."

It's been a challenging year for both parents and schools during the pandemic, and Sarah and the other mums have already missed out on other 'firsts' because of the restrictions.

"We've already missed the Christmas play," Sarah said.

"They all did videos and sent them out to us, but it's not quite the same.

"I spoke to the head teacher a few times because I wanted the school to know that it was frustrating we weren't allowed in.

"And doing what we did makes it a little bit more special, because we can look back on these pictures and think, 'we did our own sports day for our kids' and they had a ball."

Organisers Emma-Jade Shepherd and Sarah Flaherty

Sarah said frustrations grew even more after watching thousands of Scottish fans travelling down to Wembley to play England at the Euros, while other sporting events like Royal Ascot were also allowed spectators.

"When the Scottish player Billy Gilmour tested positive and only two England players had to self-isolate it just didn't make any sense," Sarah went on to say.

"The school's hands were tied obviously as they are just following the guidance they are given."

Eva, Olivia, Annabelle, Austin, Ethan, Marnie, Elijah and Daisy

The one off sports day was hailed a huge success, with the biggest problem being making sure they could hold the children's attention long enough to take part in classic events such as the infamous egg and spoon and sack races.

She added: "We tried our best to hold the children's attention for long enough.

"We even used flour to mark out the lanes for races.

"We put messages out on Facebook and people very kindly donated bits and bobs to us on the day.

"We did the normal events such as the sprint race, the sack race and the egg and spoon race.

"It was just a very traditional sports day with events we thought they'd all be able to do as they're obviously only very young still.

"The parents were all made up too and they're just so happy to be able to create these special memories.

"I don't know other parents who have done this and because they're reception age we hadn't experienced one before and just thought 'let's do it'.

"Cupcakes were donated by Danielle at The Little Cake Shop in Wincham, Hula Hoops from Rachael Rathbone at Hula Daze.

"Drinks and snacks from local resident James Eldridge, while the balloons were from Laura Bolton and Lauren Bullough.

"And Mike from the Soft Ice ice-cream van came along to support and provide ice-creams."

Lostock Gralam Primary School were approached for a comment.