15 December 2020
Sophie Foster, Sports Ribbon
The autumn term of sport at Woldingham has been very different from previous years. However, students’ work ethic has not changed. Even though there have been no external matches, everyone has made enormous efforts to maintain motivation levels in training. And in recent weeks we have all enjoyed the series of internal tournaments in hockey and netball organised by the PE department.
Even though COVID-19 has had a huge impact on sport, there have been a number of superb individual achievements. In hockey, Alex Sewell, Year 11, was selected for NAGS trials, Rosie Johnson, Year 10, for the regional performance centre and Cara White, Year 10, and Anna Menzies, Year 9, to play Surrey county hockey. Also selected for Surrey squads, this time for netball, were Year 8s Livvy Bainbridge and Imani Frimpong. Lea Gayral, Year 8, has gained a top 10 world ranking in karate, which is an amazing achievement.
Another huge success this term was House cross country in October. Everyone got involved in one way or another, which made for great fun. The winning House was Stuart, with some exceptional running.
It has been very hard for the senior teams to train as mixing between the year groups has not been possible. However, everyone has been helping each other out as best they can. Hockey and netball players have been alternating training sessions each week to be able to get game play and we had a huge number of Upper Sixth volunteers to help the academic PE students in netball training. This has all been incredibly inspiring.
I would like to thank everyone in the PE department for their hard work to keep training varied and fun during these tough times. This term has been challenging, but we will hopefully be able to return to normality and get back to playing competitive matches before too long in 2021.