Physical Education
Boys
Both Senior Rugby sides continued their winning ways from their tour of New Zealand. The 1st XV won 10 of their 14 matches setting a record as good as many a side from the distant past. During this record they defeated Stonyhurst at home in the Daily Mail Cup in an exciting game with huge support from a lot of the school. The 2nd XV did even better winning all but 2 of their matches. The side was unlucky not to go undefeated but played some outstanding rugby along the way. The younger age groups struggle with the small player base although the Under 12 side look another good team who will hopefully be very difficult to beat as they progress.
Representative honours were again plentiful. Large numbers were included in the schools of rugby, several were selected for the Sale Sharks academy and nine boys played for Lancashire at various age groups. The Senior Cricket side was very young and suffered, as seems to be the way now, through unavailability due to studies. They enjoyed the festival in Abbingdon in the scorching heat. Lower down the school the story is very promising. The Under 14 side is very strong with some fine all round players who seem to spend all of their spare time in the nets. They will certainly be a force to contend with as they reach Senior Level. Boys teams also competed in Tennis, Table Tennis, Golf, Football, Hockey, Badminton, and Athletics.
Girls
Our KS3 curriculum includes a range of major games plus badminton, swimming, health related fitness, dance and athletics with all lessons being delivered by specialist PE staff. At KS4 students can opt to take GCSE PE and in addition we offer a slightly broader curriculum for all pupils with the introduction of aerobics and cricket in Year 10 in addition to the normal curriculum activities. In Year 11 an option system operates and activities are extended to include golf and rugby. We hold inter-house activities in cross country, athletics, swimming, netball, hockey, tennis and rounders. These provide a wider number of pupils to participate in competitions and be part of a team.
After a fantastic hockey tour to New Zealand last summer, the Senior side led from the front, recording an impressive unbeaten season for the first time in many years. They won 9 of their 13 games and this included draws with both Arnold and Kirkham. The U16s kept up our tradition of adding to the trophy cabinet when they won the Lancashire Schools Presidents Plate Competition, defeating Westholme in the final. The U15s again enjoyed a great season winning 11 of their 12 games whilst all our others teams played regularly on Saturdays and in the local league during the week, all winning more games than they lost.
Twenty of our young players went on to represent Lancashire whilst we can boast 6 girls in the National Junior Regional Performance Centre, which serves as the first step for higher representative honours.In netball we have again proved a force to be reckoned with as the Year 10 team again won the Blackpool South League and finished runners-up in the tournament We have played friendly and league matches in all year groups fielding 2 and sometimes 3 teams.
In Athletics, the girls’ teams from Years 7 to 10 competed in weekly matches against local schools in all track and field events. Another successful season saw the Year 10/11 team finish second in the Fylde Coast Championships and our other teams finished in the top 4 with many individuals earning podium places. We also had a number of individual Fylde Coast and Lancashire champions.
Our tennis teams played friendly matches and in the local Lancashire league, just missing out on qualification for the next round. We again ran a very successful school singles and doubles championships for each year group with the biggest entry ever. The final matches were played in a ‘Wimbledon style’ finals morning (in the rain!) at the end of term.
