Brentwood Prep Incipe 2019

Brentwood School Preparatory 85 Sports Report Our Sporting Year Michaelmas Term We welcomed Miss Helsby to our PE & Games Team at Brentwood Prep at the start of the year and she, like our pupils, was thrown into the action straight away. The sporting calendar for Michaelmas Term looked even busier than last year as we continue to move sport at the school from strength to strength and increase the number of sporting opportunities offered to our pupils. We attended our first tournaments on the first Saturday of the Term as the Under 11A Girls Hockey Team ventured to Forest School for their annual Open Day Hockey Tournament. There wasn’t long to wait for our first success of the season as we managed to win the event and take our first piece of silverware back to Brentwood. Whilst the girls had their first push back, the boys U11A Football Team headed for their first kick off of the season as they took part in the annual Chigwell Football Festival. Whilst the boys did not manage to win the event, they performed very well and managed to show Mr Sealey enough to suggest that it would be a successful football season to follow. We ran our Cross Country Trials during the first games afternoon of the term and the effort and application on show was a good indicator for what was to follow throughout the school year. We attended a number of Cross Country meetings during the term and there was plenty of individual and team success to celebrate across the range of Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 races. In PE lessons, swimming plus rugby (boys) and hockey (girls) were the focus activities and the pupils really benefited from having two and often three teachers present for their lessons to provide focused and targeted teaching and support. Year 2 pupils were fortunate to have Miss Johnstone teaching their PE lessons alongside Mr Sawyer this year, and this will stand them in good stead as they progress into Key Stage 2. The second hockey tournament for our U11 girls came just before the half term break when they ventured to the IAPS Regional Qualifying Round at Haileybury School. A great standard of hockey was on display and the girls worked hard against some very talented and experienced opposition, their mixture of results secured 4th place in the pool, just missing out on 3rd place by goal difference. Brentwood were through to the quarter final of the competition, playing St Faith’s, Cambridge in the next round with both teams giving it their all until the final whistle. Unfortunately, a short corner was awarded and St Faith’s scored from a fantastic straight strike. A brilliant day of hockey and a great experience for the girls. The U11 A&B Hockey Teams were also extremely lucky to have England Hockey player Emily Defroand lead a training session where they learnt some new skills and got to ask Emily questions about representing her country. We hope Emily can fit us in her busy training schedule to come back and visit again soon as the girls were inspired by her visit. Whilst our U11 teams led the way, there was huge progress in hockey across the age groups and overall there were 63 hockey fixtures throughout the year, with every girl having the opportunity to represent Brentwood Prep in at least one fixture. Lots of progress was made, evidenced by performances in matches: the Year 3s played their first competitive fixtures, the Year 4 and 5 girls played their first matches with goalkeepers and the Year 6s played in more fixtures and tournaments than ever before. Whilst the girls were enjoying their hockey term, the rugby season was just as exciting for the boys and again, lots of progress was made across all age groups. It was great to have so many occasions when all the boys were able to take to the field to play and show off the skills they had acquired and developed during PE and Games lessons. The Year 3 boys had some great tag fixtures against New Hall and St Peter’s, which were all played with mixed ability teams in a round robin format. The Year 4s started off by learning the new skill of tackling and their enthusiasm and positive mindset meant it wasn’t too long before they were ‘match ready’! The first set of fixtures were played against Widford Lodge and suggested Year 4 would have a great season. The fixtures that followed against Bancroft’s, St Cedd’s and New Hall all proved incredibly satisfying for the boys and the teachers that had helped to develop them into rugby players. The Year 5 boys needed to learn how to ruck before playing their first fixtures of the season but it didn’t take too long for this bunch of enthusiastic sportsmen. Coupled with a good amount of talent across all of the Year 5 teams, this enthusiasm stood us in good stead for fixtures against all of our usual opposition teams including New Hall, Widford Lodge, Bishop’s Stortford and St Cedd’s, with all games played in a great spirit and with very favourable results for Brentwood. Again however, participation was the key factor and all of our boys were able to play whenever our opponents could muster enough players - this will stand them in good stead as they fill the shirts of our flagship Under 11 teams next season.