Steyning Primary School PE teacher Mr Knowles Retires!

After an amazing 23 years at Steyning Primary School, Mr Knowles is retiring! Mr Knowles is widely known as the most enthusiastic supporting PE teacher in Steyning! Joe Wicks has nothing on him!

After working within the special support centre at SPS for 6 years Mr Knowles took up the role of running Area Sport in 2017 and has made a huge impact on 100’s of children ever since. His energy, positivity and devotion to the children and sport has meant that the school received a Gold Standard for sport 4 years running and with the possibility of a platinum award in the pipeline this year. Watch this space!

There are too many achievements to list them all, but these deserve a mention:
• Gold medal in the Sussex games for hockey - with some players going on to play for Sussex.
• Steyning Primary School has been awarded Sussex Champions for hockey twice which is incredible for a two-form entry school.
• Two silver medals were won for girls’ football and one silver for girls’ hockey.
• One bronze medal in the Tri-County Hockey in Canterbury and two further bronze medals for both hockey and netball.
• Winning the boys Area final football, qualifying for the All-Sussex finals and finishing 5th.

Steyning Primary School has entered teams into an impressive 48 tournaments a year since he started across a range of sports such as rounders, athletics, cross-country, netball, basketball and swimming across all age groups. The opportunities he has created for the children throughout his time as PE teacher has been immense and for this, we thank him dearly.

We asked him about his highlights and the ones that stood out were an impressive standing long jump score, the boys winning a silver in cross-country last year, a nail-biting penalty shoot-out by one of the girl’s football teams resulting in a silver but above all, it is the sportsmanship shown between the children during every single one of the 17 sports days he has organised that always leaves him feeling the proudest. Now I wonder where the children get their sportsmanship from!

We would like to thank Mr Knowles for so many great memories, for the invaluable life-lesson taught to our children that will last a lifetime and for his ability to instil confidence and inspire. Thank you for all your motivational speeches, commitment, and energy you will be sorely missed.

You deserve a rest!

Happy retirement Mr Knowles!

From all at Steyning Primary School, past and present.