Vitality

Sport and Physical Education play a pivotal role in the lives of our pupils and we offer a varied and balanced programme. High expectations encourage each child to gain skills, competence and confidence in a range of physical activity. Life skills are developed to include co-operation, competition, good sportsmanship, self-discipline, learning to cope with winning and losing and a desire to keep fit and healthy for future well-being.

We are proud of the high standards pupils manage to achieve, both in terms of their results but equally importantly in terms of their sportsmanship that has long been a hallmark of how our pupils play. Our comprehensive fixture list enables pupils to play at competitive fixtures at a level matched to their ability and we take great pleasure in the number of teams that we field across all abilities. A central theme in our philosophy on sport is that as many children as possible should be given the opportunity to play for the school. We play sport during the school week and many matches on Saturday mornings, which has the added advantage of giving parents the chance to watch their children playing.

In addition to the major sports, there is a wide range of activities taught either as part of the curriculum in PE lessons or as extra curricular clubs. There are also opportunities for pupils to compete in cross-country events and in the summer term everyone participates in athletics and pupils are invited to attend the IAPS competition. Gymnastics and dance, which includes Salsa and Country, are run throughout the curriculum and as clubs. Award schemes which include BGA Gymnastics and ESAA Athletics provide additional incentives, set standards and enable pupils to monitor their own performances. We have also taken pupils on a number of highly successful sporting tours to South Africa, Ireland, Grenada and Kenya.