As we near the end of Term 4, the Elite Sports Programme has focused on the completion of the Football & Netball fixtures.
The football teams have been involved in 25 fixtures to date, and there have been significant improvements in performance levels, especially amongst Years 7 & 8, with the support of the coaches – Reece Platt & Nathan Dorman. The competition for places is fierce amongst the squads, and we are genuinely looking forward to the continued developments in the years to come. Also, we have been delighted with the Year 10’s & Year 9’s attitude to learning in training and their commitment. The fixture programme has been slightly disrupted because of the teacher's strikes’ (at other schools), the weather and limited facilities.
The netball teams have been very successful, and the Year 9s won the Town League on Wednesday evening after beating NSG 11-7, whilst the Year 10 team finished 2nd. Our Year 8 team reached the County Cup playoffs at Oundle after finishing 2nd (amongst 14 teams) in the Plate Competition – a fantastic achievement and are well placed 2nd in the league with one game to go.
Year 7 have been training hard, and their coach Michele Hudson is delighted with their progress. We have focused on the development of their individual positional skills and team play, as many have never played competitive netball before.
We have also continued with our internal/external speaker programme and have been fortunate to hear from our Vice Principal, Julian Smith, Ethan Waller (Northampton Saints Rugby) and Mo Bobat (England & Wales Cricket Board). The key messages have provided some golden nuggets of information and are providing great sources of inspiration for our 109 Elite students. This initiative will continue into Term 5 & Term 6 with more speakers planned.
Looking ahead after Easter, career aspirations will be the focus of the programme in Term 5. We have trips planned to the University of Northampton (24th April) and Loughborough University (9th May) for our Elite students. Each of the eight squads will also have an individually tailored careers programme launched in conjunction with our Careers Leader, Amy Hesketh-Carthy.
Looking further ahead, applications are now open for next year’s Elite Sports intake, plus we are hoping to offer an Elite Sports Tour in 2023/2024. Many locations have been discussed during the last month, as netball is a Commonwealth sport, whereas football is worldwide.
We are currently looking at areas to enhance the programme for 2023/2024, both in training sessions and the experience.