A SCHOOL in Bude is celebrating after scooping a national award at a glittering awards ceremony at the Telford International Centre recently.

Budehaven Community School was highly commended in the Youth Sport Trust's Innovation Award for outward facing schools using the specialism to drive learning in leisure their wider school community during the ceremony which recognised and rewarded best practice and achievements by schools with a specialism in sport.

The school received the recognition for its work with the local police force in setting up a 'Community Action Through Sport' (CATS) project to promote, recognise and reward young people for positive community action and encourage community cohesion.

The school established a committee, made up of young people, the police, education representatives, governors, council members, Connexions, Community Development Officers and local sports providers to drive the project.

The committee supported the nomination of young people for rewards for their involvement in positive action in their community, such as litter picking, fundraising, sports coaching and mentoring. Those students who won awards received free sports sessions donated by sports providers and local businesses.

The school also worked with various organisations to increase the amount of community opportunities for young people to take part and which enabled the targeting of specific pupils.

Such has been the success of the scheme that other schools across Cornwall and Devon have begun to implement the scheme.

David Barton, headteacher, said: "Being honoured in a national award ceremony such as this is acknowledgment for the fantastic work that is impacting across the entire community. It is also great recognition for what the youngsters have given to the community and raises the esteem of the school and the people, both staff and pupils, who have worked so hard."

During the awards ceremony, one of the highlights of the Youth Sport Trust's Sports Colleges Confer­ence 2009, members of staff from Budehaven Community School met with Jason Gardener who presented the certificate.

Jason said: "It is such an honour to be a part of this award ceremony and be helping to recognise the amazing work of sports colleges such as Budehaven Community School. Hearing about the innovative ways in which they are engaging with pupils and the opportunities available to young people is just incredible."

Steve Grainger, Chief Executive of the Youth Sport Trust, said: "2008 was a landmark year for sport, with a fantastic Olympic and Paralympic Games and the most successful year so far for the network of Specialist Sports Colleges.

"Sport is such a powerful vehicle for change and partnerships such as Budehaven Community College are demonstrating how they have embraced becoming a Sports College to benefit their students and shows just how important these schools are in improving the education of our young people."