Over the past few weeks it has been a privilege to meet with the father (John Rugg) of one of our past students who excelled at sport whilst at Bushey Meads School in the late 90s. Jamie Rugg was particularly talented at basketball and was nominated to be the Most Valuable Player in the year the senior basketball team won the Hertfordshire School’s Basketball Championship in 1995. In those days the Basketball Championship was held across all secondary schools in the county, so it was a particularly inspiring achievement – beating over 100 schools to reach and win the prestigious competition.

Sadly Jamie passed away last year but, through the donation of the hugely significant trophy, his memory will live on in our hearts – across and beyond our school community. Head of Faculty for PE and Health, Mr Cartledge (who was a young, new PE Teacher at Bushey Meads at the time) still remembers Jamie and his talented team and is delighted to be able to award the trophy to the most worthy team, or individual sports person, at this year’s important Annual Rewards Evening in June.

The cup is aptly named the ‘Bushey Meads School Inspiring Sports Achievement Trophy’ and will be awarded this year and annually in memory of Jamie. Mr Rugg has also generously offered to get the cup engraved with the worthy winner each year. We look forward to seeing who the first winner will be and to welcoming Mr Rugg and his family to our Rewards Evening in June of this year.

The newspaper articles detail the achievement of Jamie and his team and are well worth a read. Do also have a look at the lovely framed pictures of Jamie and the winning basketball team which is being prominently displayed in the PE and Health Faculty and be inspired!