September training – September’s booking form is now available. I know term hasn’t yet started so please make your best guess. But as you may not know about after-school clubs and regular travel arrangements just let me know later if you want to change your session timeslot(s).
There are far more options available for “competitive” running from school year 7 but not everyone will want to do all of these, so let’s work upwards.
LEEDS SCHOOLS CROSS COUNTRY
Many schools in Leeds take part in the Leeds Schools Cross Country League – 4 Saturday mornings between September and January. Primary school races from 10:00, secondary school races from 11:00. Secondary school categories are Years 7&8 and years 9&10. Year 11s are allowed to run in the y9-10 race.
To be eligible to enter, schools must join the Leeds Schools Sports Association (not all schools do), nominate a teacher (or parent) to be responsible for the whole school team on race day (it can be a different person at each meeting), and also nominate a teacher who can be off-site but must at all times be contactable by phone on race day and has emergency contact details for all students.
At the foot of this email is a list of secondary schools who competed last year and the number of runners who entered. It is likely that the same schools will take part this year.
It is a fair assumption that schools with more than 10 entries are positive about the League and that teachers do all the organisation. It is also a fair assumption that schools with fewer than 5 entries have parents supporting the runners on the day. And quite possibly a parent will make the entries for the school. Please note that if your school is in the latter category and you are nominated support contact on the day you are responsible for all children from the school (in all age-groups) on the day – if a child is injured or retires from the race it will be your phone number that the safety officer will call and you will need to find the parent.
PARKRUNS
As they are all aged 11 now they’ll be able to do 5k parkruns on Saturday as well as the junior parkruns. So rather than being tallest and hopefully in the top half in junior parkruns they’ll be amongst bigger people (but most still probably in the top half) in adult parkruns!
We are introducing a new award to encourage parkrunning. There will be a trophy for every junior Strider who completes at least 1 parkrun at each of the 11 venues in Leeds between 1 September 2025 and 31 August 2026.
Also we will have a similar trophy for every junior Strider who completes at least 2 junior parkruns at each of the 6 venues in Leeds between 1 September 2025 and 31 August 2026. It may be that some of the new year 7’s would prefer to have a go at that first.
These awards will be open to V S juniors of all ages but you are the first to know. I’ll publish to all members in a few days’ time and in the meantime am thinking of the best way to manage it. I know I can obtain all the results but I think it would be good if we had one recommended date and venue each month – you wouldn’t have to do that venue on that date but there would be a good chance that a lot of V S juniors would be there. Maybe a WhatsApp group or maybe use the Spond app.
Girls who do adult parkruns fairly frequently (whether or not attempting the full set) are invited to join the Girls “A” Group WhatsApp group and train with that group when they are at the Bodington Cycle (and at Leos too when spaces permit).
We don’t have a similar group for boys as the “C” group is mostly boys most of whom run in the England Athletics events listed below and most of whom seem to have lost interest in parkruns. Maybe we’ll set up a group for boys who aren’t wanting to compete at “higher” level.
PECO CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE
5 meetings between November and March and a Relay Race in March, all on Sunday mornings. First meeting is probably 9 November. School year 7 and older run 2 miles, so worth doing some parkruns (adult or junior) for training for these.
ENGLAND ATHLETICS AFFILIATION
For the remaining events on this list they will need England Athletics Affiliation. This costs £22 and the E A year runs from 1 April to 30 March.
Boys and girls planning to run some of these events are invited to join the “C” group WhatsApp group and try out training sessions with the “C” group. NB “C” stands for Competitive. There are a limited number of places available in this group.
LEEDS 5K
These are monthly on Wednesday evenings, 3-and-a-bit laps of the Brownlee Cycle Track. The races get between 80 and 150 runners and if they don’t want to be finishing in the back 20 they’ll need to be running 26 mins or faster for 5k. So worth doing some time trials at parkrun first.
COUNTY AND REGIONAL EVENTS
In the next set of events, age groups are as at 01/09/2025 so Under-13 is those normally in school year 7 or 8. We are not expecting many of you to do any of these, so if you are interested please contact myself, Richard Irvine or Nicola Hartley for advice. But this year will be a good year to gain some experience and next year, having had that experience and now being the oldest in the age group, be more competitive.
· West Yorkshire Cross Country League – 4 meetings on Sundays or Saturdays between October and December. First meeting is 12 October. Under-13 races start at 12 noon.
· Yorkshire Junior Road Races – Sunday 28 September at Wyke Village Cycle Track, Bradford
· Yorkshire Cross Country Championships – Saturday 10 January at Lightwater Valley
· Northern Road Relays – Saturday 20 September at Leigh
· Northern Cross Country Relays – Saturday 18 October at Sheffield
· Northern Cross Country Championships – Saturday 24 January at Pontefract
· National Road Relays – Saturday 4 October at Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham
· National Cross Country Relays – Saturday 1 November at Mansfield
· National Cross Country Championships – Saturday 21 February at Sedgefield, Durham
CALENDAR
I am currently compiling a calendar of all events from September 2025 to February 2026 and I hope to publish it later this week.
Now available https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/events-for-juniors-autumn-winter-2025-26/
Until then, you can find details of events in September and a simple list of events for the rest of 2025 in https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/events-for-juniors-spring-summer-2025/ and the results from the corresponding events last year at https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/events-for-juniors-autumn-winter-2024-25/
LEEDS SCHOOLS CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE – participation in 2024
| Abbey Grange | 16 |
| Allerton Grange School | 6 |
| Allerton High School | 4 |
| Benton Park School | 7 |
| Cardinal Heenan Catholic High S | 35 |
| Corpus Christi Catholic College | 1 |
| Crawshaw Academy | 10 |
| Fulneck | 16 |
| Garforth Academy | 22 |
| Gateways School | 2 |
| GSAL Senior School | 23 |
| Guiseley School | 17 |
| Holy Name Catholic Academy | 1 |
| Horsforth School | 23 |
| Lawnswood | 1 |
| Mount St Mary’s Catholic High S | 1 |
| Prince Henry’s GS | 39 |
| Pudsey Grammar School | 3 |
| Ralph Thoresby School | 1 |
| Rodillian Academy | 2 |
| Roundhay School Senior School | 42 |
| Ruth Gorse | 1 |
| St Mary’s Menston | 24 |
| Temple Moor High School | 5 |
| The Farnley Academy | 8 |
| The Froebelian School | 13 |
| The Morley Academy | 33 |
| Trinity Academy Leeds | 18 |
| Wetherby High School | 1 |
| Woodhouse Grove School | 50 |