Scottish Schools Cheerleading Championships held in Grangemouth as St Ninian’s enjoy clean sweep

This year’s event attracted more than 700 pupils, representing 22 schools from 11 Scottish council areas seeking success in two choreographed classes.

Caroline Millar told The Falkirk Herald it had “never been as big before. This is the biggest yet and numbers have steadily grown year-on-year”.

Organiser Caroline established the competition while a probation teacher at Denny High. She continued to cultivate the choreography while at Bo’ness Academy and is now a principal teacher at Newbattle in Dalkeith, where she continues to organise the annual event aided by Falkirk Community Trust.

She told The Falkirk Herald: “It has grown into something much bigger than I could ever have imagined, but the pupils all love it.

“The Trust and in particular Fiona Mackay are a great support and their planning, organising and leading the event is amazing and has allowed the competition to grow to the next level.

“I was involved in cheerleading growing up but when I moved into teaching there was nothing so I set up an extra-curricular club at Denny and it took off from there.

“There are obvious fitness and exercise benefits but there are a lot of life skills that can be developed too.”

Among the local schools were teams from Falkirk High, Braes High, Bo’ness Academy and of course Denny High where it all began.

However it was a clean sweep of the categories by East Renfrewshire’s St Ninian’s High School who won Cheer levels oner and two as well as the Pom dance category.

The levels were introduced to encourage new schools to enter with cheer one inclusive of all abilities and nine new schools came forward.

Cheer involves a range of stunts, motions(dance) and tumbles (jumps and gymnastic floor skills).

Pom Dance involves a range of motions, team uniformity/synchronisation and technical dance including leaps, turns and kicks.

Additional awards for schools were also judged including best stunts, team spirit and sportsmanship.

Organiser Caroline added: “The number of schools offering cheer on a curricular and extracurricular level is increasing. So many pupils now engage and love the the sport.

“ Cheer is a physically demanding sport. It takes time and commitment from pupils to learn new choreography, challenge themselves with more complex stunts and tumbles each year. In addition pupils develop skills for life including communication, team work, sportsmanship, confidence, resilience and trust.

“My school have been very supportive of the competition in allowing me to still lead and organise the event. It is now known on a national level due to the support of Active Schools, Sportscotland and Scottish Association Teachers of Physical Education. Due to the support the competition now has and brilliant team I work with to organise it, I am excited to see how it grows further in the future.”