It isn’t long until the holidays and over 300 pupils descended on an Aberdeenshire school yesterday to parade their prowess in sport.
Youngsters from across the Huntly network of rural schools attended a sports day, hosted by Rhynie School, and flung themselves into the proceedings.
The special event, Tap O the Tap, which was organised by Rhynie head teacher, Claire Conner, saw the children, aged between five and 12, take part in running races and other sports.
Mrs Connor said afterwards: “We decided to hold the day because we thought it would be a great way to get all the rural schools together.
“So, throughout the day, we held a variety of races and potted sports such as egg and spoon, a sack race and javelin.
“There were 11 schools in total that came along and 321 children attended and had a ball.
“It was myself and our PE teacher who came up with the idea and we thought it was very important for rural schools, because it gives children a chance to work in teams and compete.
“The weather held off for us, there were a few drops of rain, but we had a lot of praise for today and I think we would certainly consider making it an annual event.”
PE teacher, Viv Taylor, added: “The feedback we had from other teachers today was extremely positive and all the children were very well behaved and very enthusiastic.
“In a lot of rural schools, the youngsters don’t have the opportunity to compete against people of the same age.
“Sometimes there will only be one or two pupils in a year, so bringing them all together provided some great friendly competition.
“Parents and relatives came to watch and I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day.”
While committed to hosting the event next year, the school is now interested in finding possible sponsors to cover transport costs.