16 September 2021
Mrs Caroline Treacy, Director of Sport
Sport has enjoyed an excellent start to the year with masterclasses, team building and a much appreciated return to fixtures.
On Saturday 4 September our netball players were treated to a masterclass with Paige Reed from the Severn Stars Netball Superleague team. Paige shared her expertise, focusing on some attacking drills that the students picked up really well. The following Saturday saw Jazz Carlin, Silver Medallist at the Rio Olympic Games, put our swimmers through their paces. The sessions focused on freestyle, which is her specialism. Both coaches had a wonderful rapport with our students, answering questions and posing for photos from their superfans.
Our senior hockey and netball squad members enjoyed a team building weekend on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 September. Students from Years 11 to Upper Sixth took part in an array of activities including raft building and giant paddle boarding. They also played fixtures against club teams. The netball team played CD Phoenix and performed exceptionally well given that it was the team’s first match playing together and first competitive game since March 2020. The team narrowly lost 19-16 but showed that there is lots of potential for the season ahead. Meanwhile the hockey players took on East Grinstead Hockey Club’s ladies 3rd and 4th teams, losing 3-1 and 1-0 respectively. Again, the players demonstrated what promise there is for the coming season once they have become accustomed to playing with their new team mates. Back at Woldingham on Saturday evening, the Seniors, and staff, enjoyed a fun fitness session with Whoop Fitness and Wellbeing, a BBQ and toasting marshmallows around the firepit, before retiring to “camp” in the sports hall. The weekend finished on Sunday with competitive laser tag games, giving the students yet more opportunities to work in a team and develop their leadership and communication skills.
In other news, this week we’ve had some first rounds of the Independent Schools Hockey and Netball Cups. The U13 hockey girls lost narrowly 3-2 against King’s Rochester in their first ever competitive hockey fixture for Woldingham. The U15’s played netball against very tough opposition from Burgess Hill and Kingston Grammar. Given that these fixtures came so early in the term, there are plenty of positives to take from them and we are very optimistic for future rematches.
