Organisers have hailed the return of school sports after the first face to face tournament in 15 months was successfully held.

And the smiles on the children's faces said it all - as more than 30 excited youngsters battled it out in the North Suffolk Schools ALT Year 6 boys football championships.

Hosted and organised by Red Oak Primary School last Friday, it was the first school sports tournament to take place since restrictions were eased.

The tournament featured ALT schools Reydon, Grove, Westwood and Red Oak primary schools.

With additional safety precautions and risk assessments put in place to allow the event to run as safely as possible, organisers said that prior to Covid 12 teams would have battled it out, with 120 children competing.

As well as a smaller number of children competing, all staff had to have negative Covid tests before they could attend, with socially distanced team areas and hand sanitising stations in place.

A minute's silence was held at the start of the tournament, as respects were paid to Jordan Banks and to the NHS workers, carers and victims of the pandemic.

Grove Primary School were crowned North Suffolk ALT Year 6 boys champions ahead of second placed Westwood (B cup winners), Reydon Primary School in third and Red Oak in fourth.

Johnny Lee, PE co-ordinator and Upper Key Stage 2 Leader at Red Oak and organiser of the North Suffolk ALT Games, said: "Grove played some amazing football to win all three of their games.

"It was a very close tournament with second, third and fourth placed schools all achieving a total of three points from their games so the final positions were decided on goal difference."

Mr Lee added: "It was wonderful to see the return of competitive school sports in Suffolk.

"At Red Oak, we usually host 40 tournaments across the school year for the local North Suffolk ALT schools, however due to the pandemic we had to stop running these tournaments 15 months ago.

"The children from across the schools were very excited to compete against one another again.

"It has been a very long wait."

Another 11 sports tournaments are now being scheduled until the end of July, with a Year 6 girls ALT football championships being held this week.