The letter below was sent to Thanet Passport and schools that have supported our cross country events in the past. A couple of schools have already come forward offering to help arrange smaller events in the future on their own sites. I'll have the opportunity to meet with them shortly and see how we might organise things.
Holding events on school sites offers major advantages. Toilets and parking areas are permanent features and insurance cover for inter-school sports events is already in place, all of which should enable us to reduce costs enormously.
I'm sure we'll be back in some form before too long. My current thinking is that it will be separate race days for different year groups, but time will tell.
You can drop me a message any time if you'd like to join my email distribution list and be informed directly.
Tuesday 27th January 2026.
Dear colleagues,
You have probably seen the Quex Park Cross Country is in the calendar for 28th February. Regretfully, this event will not now take place and is unlikely to return on the same scale as before in the foreseable future without commercial sponsorship.
Entries were significantly down last time, although in three of the races we actually handed out many more medals than the 'official' number of runners! This suggests that some people (quite possibly from outside Thanet) were 'gaming the system' by turning up to race despite not having been entered by their schools.
We have lost money on the two most recent events and whilst the sums are not huge, it is not a sustainable situation, especially as putting the entry price up would likely reduce numbers further.
Recruiting a sufficient number of committed volunteers has also proved increasingly difficult. Many of our long-term training squad have gone up to university and neither they nor their parents are available to carry on helping.
This makes it difficult to ensure that marshalling is enforced to the standard quite reasonably expected by our hosts. Despite us spending hundreds of pounds on additional signage, a minority of our visitors have continued to park in inappropriate places, been rude when challenged, climbed over fences, and on one occasion caused damage to a metal gate.
Given the resources available to us, I honestly couldn't guarantee that similar incidents wouldn't occur in the future. That would seriously jeopardise the good relationship we have enjoyed with Quex Park Estates over the years, so the sensible strategy is to withdraw gracefully now and rethink things for the future.
The most likely scenario over the next couple of years is that we will promote a series of smaller race days at different locations across Thanet and possibly slightly farther afield.
Naturally, once plans are clearer, I look forward to inviting you all to what I hope will be many more enjoyable and challenging events for your pupils.
In the meantime, please encourage parents to consider the Junior Parkrun races. These are held nationwide every Sunday morning, with Hartsdown Park in Margate being our closest.
Sincere thanks for your support and understanding.
Steve
Dates & Venue
The Thanet Primary Schools' Cross Country races take place at Quex Park in Birchington. There are usually two events during each school year.
The first is in October, just a few weeks after children move up to their new year groups. For many, this is their first taste of a big race
The second event is halfway through the school year, a couple of weeks after the February half-term holiday.
Age Groups
There are separate girls' and boys' races for each year group in National Curriculum Key Stage 2. Dates of birth for the 2025-26 academic year as below:
Year 3
1 Sept 2017 to 31 Aug 2018
Year 4
1 Sept 2016 to 31 Aug 2017
Year 5
1 Sept 2015 to 31 Aug 2016
Year 6
1 Sept 2014 to 31 Aug 2015
How to Enter
Entries are made by schools and the races are open to all children in Years 3 to 6 who attend schools affiliated to Thanet Passport. (Parents and teachers from other schools should feel free to contact us for information on other events that may be available to their children.)
Entry forms are sent to all eligible schools a few weeks before each event. If your child doesn't receive one (or does, but mislays it), you can download an entry form from the link below. Please return the form to your child's school as soon as possible after receiving it.
Link Will Appear Here When Form Is Available
Each school sets its own internal deadline to receive its pupil's forms. They then collate their entries and send them on to us.
Home Educators
If you have an elective home education arrangement for your child(ren) and would like to enter them, we'd love to have them along to race. Just drop us an email via the link below and we'll send you everything you need to know to make sure they can compete alongside the others:
Children who are educated away from school often have fewer opportunities than others to participate in sporting activities, so we are more than happy for them to participate in any of ours.
Home educators who live within the Thanet school district are welcome to enter their children in the races corresponding to their dates of birth.
