Sports Highlights

Overview of the Year

In the Sports Department at Queen’s we have had a year of “firsts” as we continue to build our sporting profile and widen the physical education opportunities we offer here at the College! For instance, this year has seen the introduction of the Queen’s Netball Academy, where girls from all year groups trialled for a place and now train weekly at Seymour Leisure Centre at 7am on a Monday morning. We have also added to our outdoor provision with the inclusion of sailing at West Reservoir in our Seniors PE Programme that runs on a Friday, which is an amazing opportunity for all the pupils involved.

Fixtures

We started the year by entering a team into the Senior Netball Competition, hosted by the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA), which was another first. The weekend, up in Shropshire, offered a mixture of outdoor adventurous activities, an inspirational talk from England Netball star and 2018 Commonwealth Champion, Beth Cobden, as well as a series of masterclasses led by England coaches and players. On the final day, all the schools participated in the GSA netball tournament. Despite a very long and physically challenging weekend, the Queen’s team played some brilliant netball and finished in the top five girls’ schools in the country. This was a fantastic achievement in a national competition and great preparation for the season ahead. This was a springboard into an extremely busy year of just under 100 fixtures, across all seven year groups and involving nearly one third of all our pupils. After the restrictions during the pandemic, it has been lovely to see so many of our pupils involved in matches this year. In addition to our half termly interhouse competitions, and our weekly fixtures against local schools, we have also participated in several tournaments in both netball and football. This included us attending the first GSA U12 football tournament, where we took a mixed team from the Prep and the College and came away with a silver medal. Our Cheerleading success has continued this year with a win at the end of the Michaelmas Term and a second-place finish in the Spring Competition, putting us in a strong position to regain our overall title at the finals this year. We also participated in the Westminster Athletics Championships, where our team of over 40 pupils won 26 medals between them – an amazing achievement!

Barbados Trip

This year we took a group of pupils to Barbados on a Netball and Cricket Tour. They had the most incredible experience, taking a jeep safari around 80% of the island, playing netball and cricket against various Barbados teams, snorkelling in the ocean with turtles and taking a catamaran cruise for the day. Our next major tour is planned for Summer 2024 with a netball trip to South Africa!

London Pulse Trip

As a reward for the commitment and effort our new Queen’s Netball Academy have shown this year, we took them to watch a Netball Super League match between London Pulse and Surrey Storm at the Copper Box Arena. It was a very close match, showcasing some of the best netballers in the country. The pupils then had the opportunity to meet some of the players at the end of the match to get their autograph (and take some selfies!). It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for all involved and hopefully it has inspired the pupils to aim high in their sporting careers.

Sports Day

Sports Day in June was the perfect way to round off a fantastic year for sport here at Queen’s. The sun was shining at Finsbury Park for what proved to be a fun day of athletics for all pupils. For the first time, we held an opening ceremony which set the scene wonderfully. During the day pupils ran, jumped, and threw with enthusiasm to win points for their House, as well as medals for the top three. Well done to all pupils who competed on the day! Particular congratulations are due to Parks, who were the winning house overall, and to those pupils who set new records.

In Class 2, Talia broke the record for the 200m; in Class 1, Tise and Rosa did the same for the 100m and Discus, and Parks set the record for the 4 x 100m relay; in I Juniors, Lila set the record for the 200m and again the 4 x 100m relay team, this time from Pankhurst, beat the record; and in the Seniors, Eloise smashed the previous record for the 200m. The last record to be broken on the day was in the House 4 x 100m relay, where one pupil from each year group takes part for their house, and Parks beat the record, running under a minute for the first time. A huge thank you to Mrs Emma Croker, our Director of Sport, and the whole PE team for their meticulous organisation of this wonderful day. Thank you also to Debbie Dunning, Gemma Knight and the QCPA for providing the delicious refreshments, including very popular ice-creams!