On 5th March, we welcomed four local primary schools, Redlands, Whitley Park, Katesgrove and The Palmer Academy, to take part in the KS2 Festival of Sport – Hockey Tournament on the Astro.
The session was run by Matt Richards, Head of Hockey and former England Hockey player, but was taught by our Sports Prefects and some of our other hockey enthusiasts.
Before the tournament, the teams started off with some warmups and an introduction to hockey, such as passing drills and a teamwork exercise to best prepare everyone for the coming matches. Three 15-minute games were played, with each of the schools having a chance to play against each other. After a lot of a great hockey from all, Whitley Park Primary School were declared the winners with 2 victories and a draw. And after congratulations, everyone once again came together for some hot chocolate, hot dogs and music to end the morning at our Cricket Pavillion!
Events like this are amazing opportunities for our students to be involved in the local community, as well as an excellent chance to apply what they’ve learnt through teaching others. That was certainly the case for George (Year 11), who plays for the England Under 16 Hockey Squad: “This was my second time helping out with this, and it was really nice to see them develop from the warmups into their games. Especially when you can see what you taught them being done on the pitch. It’s really nice and it fills you up.”
Abi (Year 10) felt the same: “I really enjoyed teaching the kids how to play hockey as some hadn’t played before. I think they all learnt best how to work together today rather than just being independent players. What I enjoyed the most was when they scored, because it was such a lovely moment to see them so happy enjoying the sport that I love.”
After speaking to some of the attending primary school students, they were positively energetic about their experience! “Today was fabulous!” enthused Najash from Whitley Park. “The prefects supported us and taught us well in how to play the game along with some tactics”. Eleanor from Redlands also had to say: “I’m happy with the result we got, we came second which is something to be proud of. The Leighton Park students we worked with we’re really kind and I found today very exciting!”
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