By Will Bray, Head of Sport

The Autumn term has been a busy one for pupils at Dunhurst. For some this kicked off in the summer, as following a tough selection process last year, they represented the Prep School Lions at the Gothia Youth World Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden. Once term started, we were straight into action as our Wednesday afternoon fixture schedule got underway. With so many pupils eager to represent the school this term, just under 150 fixtures have been played, averaging at 13 teams playing each week. In addition to football, hockey and netball fixtures, pupils have impressed in a number of swimming galas and cross-country events.

We are fortunate to have fantastic sports facilities at Bedales and it wasn’t long before we made the most of these with our annual schedule of host tournaments. These began with our U9 and U11 football festivals for local state schools, before the annual ISFA U11 regional qualifier, which sees the top two teams progress to the national finals at St George’s Park. In early October a whopping 24 teams took part in the U13 football tournaments played across the site. The final event hosted by the school was our annual U13 hockey tournament in which we were delighted to see our girls team come home with silver medals.

House sport has taken off over the last two years and we often find pupils eagerly checking the leader board in the PE department to see how their House is faring against the others. This year’s competition began with a number of hotly contested dodgeball tournaments in year groups, before we moved onto football, hockey and netball. The final House event of the term was the Badley Run. Pupils took on the course with energy and determination, knowing that as a whole school event, double points were on offer, which always significantly impacts the running total.

On a personal level, it has been great to see some of our pupils excelling in sport outside of school as well. A huge congratulations to Miles, Leo and Albie in Group 2 (Year 5) for being selected to represent Hampshire at district level in cricket. Congratulations also to Martha for being selected to play for Southampton Football Academy. Finally, a big well done to Evie, Annie, Marlowe and Annabel for their efforts on the hockey pitch this term which has lead to them being put forward for Hampshire’s Junior Development Centre.

Whilst many core sports have seen some real successes this term, it has also been wonderful to see so many pupils taking up the opportunity to progress their skills in some more specialist sports such as fencing and karate, offered as part of our activities programme. We eagerly await the start of roller hockey and cheerleading in the Spring term!