Other Sporting Achievements

The PE Department has continued to encourage pupils to access competitive sporting opportunities in the wider community. A couple of examples of pupil successes this year are written about below.

Sports Leaders

Following successful trials in the Sixth Form on the Level 2 course, this year marked the first time we delivered the Level 1 course for pupils in Years 10 & 11. The course itself is a mixture of theory and practical work based around developing a young person’s life skills through leadership. These comprise of communication, self- belief, teamwork, self-management and problem solving. Pupils are taught how to identify these key skills in themselves and others and through a carefully constructed series of tasks and activities, they have the opportunity to develop and enhance their existing skills as well as developing new ones along the way. We had 26 Year 11 pupils and 13 from Year 10 embark on this journey with us and what fabulous groups they were. It was an absolute pleasure watching their confidence grow as they tried their hand at planning and delivering small activities to their peers; they listened patiently and intently to feedback and then refined their work to make it even better. They were then able to put all they had learned into practise, culminating in a whole school sports day, leading our younger Shirburnians through a series of Interhouse events at the end of their course.

Congratulations to all of those who took part. Their enthusiasm and willingness to try new things was wonderful to see and they undoubtedly ended the course knowing that the skills they continued to develop throughout will stand them in very good stead in the years to come.

“Sports leaders allowed me to develop a deeper understanding of the range of abilities and perspectives that people experience. I’ve come out of it with more empathy and innovative skills than I’d started with, as well as increased awareness of the inclusivity of every day tasks and activities” By Haneen

“I am able to lead, adapt and develop a wider perspective of every person’s uniqueness” By Abdelrahman

“I am now able to instruct others and lead my own activities. I have enjoyed working with other people” By Aleena

“Becoming a sports leader has helped me with my confidence, especially speaking in front of a group. It has been a great experience”. By Safeia, Year

World Cup excitement is building!

The 2021 edition of the Arab Cup was held in Qatar between November and December. 16 teams played games across 6 stadiums in the biggest trial event before Qatar 2022. As part of our commitment to leadership and volunteering at major sporting events, we congratulate the following pupils who acted as flagbearers at Ahmad Bin Ali (Al Rayyan) Stadium for the game between Jordan and Morocco.

William Selwood Maab Elsheikh Nur Safeia Sharizal Sophia Hixson Syed Hasan Ali Daisy Kinnaird-Barr Shaheer Suleman Syed Abdullah Gelani Isabela Ventorim Omotoyosi Zainab Olagunju Amira Al Said Beatrice Selwood Isabella Keefe

Other pupils in school performed similar roles throughout the tournament, as well as acting as ball boys / girls, organised through their local sports clubs.

We hope that many more of our pupils will be able to access similar roles when the World Cup starts in November 2022.

Mr Keefe Deputy Head (Pastoral) Miss Price Head of Academic PE

Sports Leaders Awards are only the start of the leadership and volunteering journey for many of our pupils. Maryam and Khadija Ghaly are just two examples of this. Whilst achieving their Level 1 Sports Leaders Award, they are also amazing role models inside and outside school. As well as being academically strong, they are prominent leaders in Cook House. They are always at the front of the queue to volunteer to help, especially for anything that is sports-related, including being officials at sports day and leading football sessions for pupils in Year 6 on Transition Day.

This academic year, both Maryam and Khadija became Youth Advocates as part of the Generation Amazing programme. Generation Amazing is Qatar’s flagship legacy programme based on “the power and appeal of football to inspire positive social change in Qatar and globally”. They participated in a 3-day festival at Education City in December, which included a talk on Women in Sport from Ibtihaj Muhammad, best known for being the first Muslim American woman to wear a headscarf while competing for the United States in the Olympics, as well as for winning an Olympic medal (bronze) wearing it. Maryam and Khadija made such an impression with their passion and enthusiasm that they were invited to be involved in a talk of gender equality in sport, and to be part of a documentary on the same topic. They are inspirational characters, attending the Ramadan Girls Festival in April to help coach our two teams, and also the InterHouse Boys World Cup Festival in Lusail in May to referee the games.

Maryam and Khadija explain more below about what it means to be Youth Advocates for Generation Amazing. They are both certainly “amazing” and worthy recipients of the Principal’s Award.

Honestly, becoming a member of the 2022 Generation Amazing Youth Advocates has been nothing short of life changing. It truly provided us, Khadija and I, with the platform we longed for for so long. We always truly wanted to change the way female participation in any aspect of life is perceived, whether it be in sports or education or any other field, especially when it comes to Muslim women. We passionately want to show that, no matter the gender or ethnicity, anything can be done. This, we want to show metaphorically through football, as for us it is a stress-relieving mechanism, that not only provides you with a healthy outlet, but teaches you vital life lessons, like consistency, how to be tactical, how to be relentless, how to communicate... the list is endless. So why shouldn’t everyone be allowed to experience this? That is the message we want to spread, and so we are extremely thankful for Generation Amazing and the opportunities they are providing for us to achieve this. The absolute highlight so far has been the International Women’s Day talk we held at Oxygen Park, where we discussed Islamic feminism and how it relates to sport, and many other topics related to female participation and empowerment. In the future, we hope to widely spread the message through GA that change should be brought about, regarding adversity in all aspects of life, and that it should end immediately. Because, identity is what creates diversity, and so what is sport without the beauty of diversity? We want to encourage all people, especially Muslim women, to play and learn and SIUUUU their way through life because what is football if it is denied to someone simply because of their identity? By Maryam Ghaly, Year 11

Being selected for the GA Youth Advocates has been an amazing experience so far. Through the countless events and opportunities provided to us, we have been able to vocalise the changes we believe the world needs in order for it to become a better place, like Maryam and I’s talk on Islamic Feminism on International Women’s Day at Oxygen Park. GA gives you a space to discuss changes you believe can improve the community we live in and take action to bring about those changes mainly through the use football. As Youth Advocates, our main goal is to influence the younger generations to always look to achieve their goals no matter how difficult they may seem or what background you come from. By Khadija Ghaly, Year 11

Sherborne leading “positive social change”

Mr Keefe was also asked to run a workshop for Generation Amazing at the festival focusing on making football inclusive to all regardless of ability, using the S.T.E.P. principle (Space, Task, Equipment, People), which forms the basis of our sports leaders awards. This meant that Sherborne was the only school in Qatar invited to present at the festival.

Generation Amazing Ambassador visit

Sherborne Qatar is proud to be part of the Generation Amazing schools delivery and legacy programme. As part of our ongoing build-up to the Qatar 2022 World Cup Sherborne Senior School was delighted to welcome World Cup Generation Amazing Ambassadors Wael Gomaa and Ali Al Habsi to school. Wael played 114 times for Egypt and won the African Nations Cup 3 times played at centre-back. Ali is an Omani International who played in goal in the Premiership for Bolton, West Brom and Brighton. He was the first Arab footballer to win the FA Cup. The Ambassadors did a Q&A with pupils from our Generation Amazing football and multi-sport enrichment programmes about their careers and then did a range of football skills challenges with them.

With over 40 pupils attending weekly enrichment sessions at Senior School, complimented by additional sessions from Saner Hasan and BE Rugby, it was important that Sherborne Senior School ended our season with some fixtures against other sides. The Qatar Rugby Federation organised a school “return to rugby” tag rugby festival at Onaiza World Cup training pitches in March 2022. Sadly, a few schools dropped out at short notice leaving Sherborne U12 and U15 mixed rugby squads to play two games each against Doha College.

In a series of really energetic and exciting games, our U15s drew their first game with Doha College before closely losing the second, after a good comeback in the second half. Our U12s side, however, won both their games against Doha College to become the QRF Tag Champions 2021/22, maintaining Mr White’s record in Doha of winning a trophy in every competition when he has coached a team.

U12 SQUAD

Ali Al Sayegh Maryam Al Kaabi Gabriella Franklin Jacob Baqla Corey Carberry Lucia Hanna Beatrice Selwood Lina Sellami Ivy Tavola Alex Jenkins Zeena El Gebely Torin Stephen Muhammed Shahim U15 SQUAD

Patrick Baron Brody Stephen Harry O Donnell Max Eite Sami Eltom Timo Horn Rory Van Eck Max Saunders Noor Ibrahim Max Saunders Jana Kamel Muhammed Chaudry Rowan Watson Noah Hanna

Rugby Success

Rugby in school is just the beginning. It is remarkable to think that Norain El Gebely in Year 12 only started playing rugby 2 years ago having represented the school in a touch rugby tournament at Doha Sports Park. Recognising her talents, and huge potential, she was soon added to the Qatari national team training squad and now trains up to 4 times a week with them.

Norain was selected to play for Qatar Women’s Rugby team this year. In the West Asia 7s tournament at Aspire, Qatar Women won all three of their games on the first day. They went on to beat Syria Women 17-20 in the semi-final, before meeting a very organised UAE Women in the final to claim second place. Norain showed some lovely passing skills throughout.

In the men’s competition our Head Boy from last year, Oliver Kinnaird-Barr, won his first cap for Qatar, demonstrating some nice skills as the men secured third place beating Lebanon 10-36 in the 3rd Place Final. Congratulations also to Sam Kinnaird-Barr, our current Head Boy, and Jana Kamel in Year 9 who are both involved with the National Squads and inline to be capped in future.

In December, Sherborne Qatar participated in the HSBC Commercial Bank Qatar Junior School Golf Championship at Education City Golf course. Competing against teams from ASD, DBS, Compass, DESS, DC and Kings College, Sherborne played superbly and managed to come away as team winners.

The team consisted of: Jack Tobin Year 12, Harry O Donnell Year 9, Elizabeth O Donnell Year 7 and Amelia O Donnell Year 4.

On Friday 13th May 2022, Qatar welcomed some of the best athletes in the world to compete at Qatar Sports Club in the first Diamond League meeting of the season. As a ‘curtain raiser’, two of our pupils, competing for Doha Athletics Club, participated in junior races in front of thousands of eager fans inside what was a rather windy stadium. Despite the conditions, Gabriella Franklin won the 800m girls race leading from the front for most of the race, whilst Emily Spicer Gregory recorded a new PB coming second in the 100m girls race in 12.88 seconds. Emily also ran the anchor leg in the 4 x 100 relay crossing the line in first place in a dominant performance. We look forward to watching their athletics journey over the next few years.