Excellence grading puts Cippenham amongst the elite

Cippenham Table Tennis Club is truly one of the outstanding sports clubs in the area, and now it is official. Who says so? - Sport England.

Cippenham Table Tennis Club is the most recent to gain the Sport England Clubmark status, the badge that underpins the national programme of accreditation of quality sports clubs. And in keeping with Cippenham’s status as one of the country’s largest and most progressive table tennis clubs, the award has been made at the highest, Excellence, level. This puts Cippenham right at the top of national sports clubs.

Clubmark is a cross-sport quality accreditation for clubs with junior sections. It’s aims are to ensure that agreed standards are met and adhered to evenly by clubs across different sporting disciplines. The focus is on clubs being active, accessible and accredited.

Being eligible for the Clubmark status was not difficult for a club of Cippenham’s standing. However, the degree of evidence required was such that it took quite a few months to gather it all together. Emphasis is placed on quantity and quality of programme delivery all supported by a trained and checked volunteer force operating within a disciplined environment in which safety and protection of children is paramount.

Cippenham Table Tennis Club Chairman, Graham Trimming, who undertook the process of documenting all the evidence, said “The timing of this has fitted into our development plan perfectly. This year we are concentrating on having all our volunteers checked by the Criminal Records Bureau, something that we have to do to satisfy our Child Protection Policy, and training our volunteers in such diverse matters as child protection, emergency life support as well as the more traditional table tennis aspects of coaching, umpiring and tournament organization. We have set aside a large budget this year to drive this”.

Clubmark status shows parents that their children will be cared for in a safe and welcoming environment and that the volunteers that come into contact with them will have been screened. It allows the club to be referenced by external agencies such as the English Table Tennis Association and Slough Borough Council and it increases the opportunities for funding of initiatives. The Cippenham management also expect it be provide a platform for the club’s involvement in a potential Slough schools coaching initiative after Easter.