It has been an extremely busy and successful season for our junior and senior netball squads.
Specialist netball training, which starts with girls in Year 3, has seen the junior school team excel at local and county tournaments. In fact, our Year 6 team will shortly travel to Dorset to compete in the national finals of the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools (IAPS) competition, having recently topped the regional round.
In local block fixtures, senior school students won 15 out of 17 matches against Bristol Grammar School, 8 out of 10 matches against King Edward’s School Bath, 6 out of 6 matches against Colston’s School, 5 out of 6 matches against Clifton College and 3 out of 4 matches against Cheltenham College.
Our U12A and B teams both won their respective Millfield Netball Tournaments and the A team also reached the quarterfinal of the ‘Sisters in Sport’ national tournament.
Our U13 team won both the Cheltenham Ladies College Netball Tournament and the Millfield Netball Tournament, and reached the semi-final of the national Independent Schools Netball Cup (ISNC). Our U15 team reached the quarterfinal of the ISNC.
We also saw both our U14 and U16 netball teams win their county rounds to secure a place in the regional finals, with the U14 team narrowly missing a place in the nationals when they finished third overall.
In terms of elite performance, we have record numbers of senior students involved in the NOVA academy, with one student selected to play for the U17 Severn Stars franchise and another working as an U19 Severn Stars training partner.
However, we also pride ourselves on giving as many girls as possible experience in competitive fixtures and are delighted that in Year 7, for example, the C, D, E and F teams have won 100% of their matches. More recently, we hosted a ‘Sport for all’ Tournament involving over 200 girls from Years 7 and 8.
Speaking of this success, Miss Maggs Director of Sport said, “Our investment in specialist netball coaching is really paying off. We are developing talent right across the school, and getting record numbers of girls enjoying sport.”