This year in netball

It has been another super busy netball season this year with 278 students playing in 31 teams in 172 fixtures.

The continued participation across the school and all that has been achieved is brilliant to see. An increase in friendly fixtures this season has enabled mass participation across all year groups with lots of successes throughout. The success in the Sisters n Sport competitions for all age groups continues to be a great environment for lots of learning to take place with the U15A placing third in the plate competition. Again, a well done to the U14A, U16A and 1st VII teams who all made it through to the regional round of the English Schools competition with the U14As finishing an amazing 3rd at Regionals, just missing out on a place at Nationals.

In the school sports magazine cup, the U13A reached the semi finals with some strong performance.

We continue to support the local community through primary and secondary competitions hosted at St Helen’s. The recent Oxfordshire School Games netball tournament for U12 to U16 saw local secondary schools compete for the winning title. It was a fantastic opportunity for our U13Ds and U14Ds to take part in an afternoon of competitive matches: it was brilliant to see so many students taking part in netball on the courts in such high spirits.

A big thank you to all who have supported the netball programme again this year, I am excited to start looking ahead to next season to create even more opportunities for all.

One trip this year was our U14 and U15 teams who went on a netball tour in Holland:

Ellie and Liv, Year 10

"The netball trip to Holland was definitely a highlight of the term. Everyone played very well, learned new skills and had a great time taking part in extra activities. This included trampolining IN A CAVE, tobogganing (Miss Hawtin refused to use the brakes), and exploring the town of Valkenburg.

We started off the week taking part in some netball training mixed with other schools. Everyone learned new skills and received great coaching from top class coaches! Everyone was ready to put their all into the netball tournament at the end of the week. It went really well, with SHSK A team winning the whole tournament. SHSK B team did really well too, placing 4th overall."

"Playing netball at St Helen's since Year 7 has been a huge part of our sporting career. Spending so much time with your team at training, bus journeys and matches creates a really strong friendship bond. We've both seen this especially through playing for the 2nds in Sixth Form. The highlight of our netball career has to be March Madness. The dressing up, spirit and leading a team of younger students felt like a full circle moment! Whether it's a friendly or a cup match, our time representing SHSK netball has been so much fun, and we've loved every second of it!"

Alice R and Alina F (Upper Sixth)

To celebrate the end of a very busy netball season, our annual March Madness tournament took place. The competition is made up of 12 teams with students who have participated in any school netball this year, headed up by Sixth Form captains in a variety of fancy dress outfits. The team names and costumes are always hotly anticipated; this year’s array did not disappoint with some fantastic efforts by all.

Well done and thank you to all students who took part and see you again next year!

Miss Harris

Head of Netball