The Department of Community, Culture and Leisure’s Sports Development Unit staged the Primary Schools Badminton Festival at the National Sports Centre, Douglas, on Thursday (3 November 2011). The festival was organised and delivered as part of the Primary School Sports Programme which offers opportunities in six sports to every primary school around the Island. This year was the most successful Badminton Festival to date with 17 schools taking part and more than 200 children involved in the event. In the run up to the festival the Sports Development Unit, in partnership with the Isle of Man Badminton Association, trained 33 secondary school pupils to achieve Badminton Young Leaders status through Badminton England’s Badminton Junior Helper Award. From this, regional badminton cluster training sessions were organised at the local high schools over a five week period which were facilitated by the qualified young leaders and local qualified club coaches. These cluster sessions saw over 380 children take part in the run up to the festival with the hope that some of these will continue in community clubs. The festival ran very smoothly with the assistance of young leaders and club coaches. The standard was closer this year and saw Rushen Primary winning the girls’ award, with Ballacottier Primary School, Douglas, winning both the boys’ award and the overall schools winner award. Badminton Development Officer, Kerry Penswick commented: ‘It’s been great to see the developments with the Badminton Festival over the last two years and to see how successful it has become. The number of schools involved in the festival was fantastic and the young leaders and club coaches have been a significant help throughout the process.’ ENDS