“First class!” School and community welcomes new fitness facility

Sutton Coldfield students are swapping exercise books for exercise regimes, after a pioneering new fitness facility opened at their school.

John Willmott School – soon to be renamed The Royal Sutton School – welcomed visitors and VIPs on Friday, July 12^th for the opening of the new Functional Fitness Facility, which is the first of its kind in Birmingham.

The not-for-profit exercise facility, which includes weights, skiing and rowing machines and high-tech ‘assault’ bikes used by the global CrossFit gym brand, will also throw open its doors to members of the local community.

The facility was designed, funded and built through a partnership between the school, which is part of the respected Arthur Terry Learning Partnership, the Academy Programme CIC, Sport Birmingham and Sport England’s Active Partnerships.

And crucial to its design was input from the team at CrossFit B76, Sutton Coldfield’s own CrossFit training club, which has worked with the school for almost two years on the project.

After opening the Fitness Facility, students were put through their paces by CrossFit B76 coaches Leigh Jeffries, Sharon Harper, Josh Adkin and Zoe Woodward, tackling all of the state-of-the-art equipment.

John Willmott School headteacher Nicola Gould said: “It’s a dream to see this facility opened after two years of hard work, with so many people contributing to make it a reality.

“This isn’t just about physical fitness – it provides so much for our students on top of first-class exercise equipment.

“Of course, it will help them to be physically confident, supporting their health and fitness – but it will also provide an opportunity to build character and embed values of courage and respect.

“Having the facility in school will reduce barriers to participation, and inform the students’ active lifestyle choices, and help them to lead happier, healthier lives.

“But most of all, we hope it will build self-esteem, and help develop happy people who seek out new experiences and challenges.

“We are incredibly grateful to all of the people who have helped make this happen, and to the CrossFit experts from B76 who helped us design the space and then came along to coach the students using it.”

Lauren Davies, of Sport Birmingham, said: “Three years ago we released a fund to open up school facilities to the community and we part funded this project, helping towards things like training for staff and some equipment purchases. It’s a fantastic project.”

The new facility is the latest of many improvements at the school, as it prepares to officially adopt its new name of The Royal Sutton School in September. The new exercise facility includes the new school logo – a stag’s head – as part of its design.

Lloyd Everitt, the school’s Head of PE, said: “We have been very lucky that the Active Partnerships have granted us around £25,000 to transform what we have here.

“In the long-run we want to extend this so it’s not just our children that use it, but other children in the community can come in and engage in healthy activity.

“As a PE teacher, you want the children to leave school having engaged with correct lifestyle choices, and this makes that possible for all kinds of students – not just the ones who are interested in traditional team sports like football.

“It’s definitely something that we can be proud of.”

Speaking after the launch, Leigh Jeffreys, owner of CrossFit B76, said: “I think this is brilliant – it’s so needed in this community.

“I’ve been working with the community for the last 11 years and kids so often fall in and out of sporting activity, so to have somewhere like this where they can come and rediscover physical activity is brilliant.

“CrossFit is all about getting fit in a fun way, which keeps kids involved in it. It makes them want to come back and do more.”

“It’s an amazing thing to be a part of.”

Hannah Mittoo, of The Academy CIC, said: “We are so happy to have been a part of making this happen. This facility is absolutely stunning.”