Year 11 students, Giselle Gelipter and Amelia Ryan use the new rowing machines

The arrival of new rowing machines has sparked a frenzy in the sports department with heated competition to see who can get the best times. The two machines were kindly provided by the Schools Sports Partnership.

Head of PE, Neil Shorrock said: 'We've been using them with the GCSE group because there's a fitness module in that. We're using them with Year 11s and we've got a bit of competition going to try to get them using the machines worth £2,000. We're trying to get it so that they've got good technique and they're generally limited to 500m rows. Hopefully we'll develop it as an extra-curricular activity.'

Mr Gillespie said: 'Some of the students have started to do longer rows with some doing 5000m. We're trying to incorporate them into the lessons as a way of enhancing general fitness.'