By Iris C and Jaspreet G

On Friday 24th March, the U16 Netball team were on their way to compete in the National Netball finals at the Oundle Sports Centre in Peterborough. Our team was a mix of year 10 and year 11 and consisted of Iris C (Captain), Addy MS (Vice-Captain), Eliza H, Ella M, Mim C, Hope G, Sophia M, Jasmine D-RR, Jaspreet G, Julia B, Morven P and Georgia C. We arrived promptly and kept our spirits high as we were all excited and pumped to play the following morning. We had Mr Bennett, Mr Henderson and Miss Dunkley accompany us on the bus journey, however to our surprise, Miss Munro-Hall and Miss Newman came up to Peterborough to support us. We were very grateful to see the majority of the PE department there to support us.

The morning of Saturday 25th March was the day of the tournament. After a quick run in the parking spaces behind the hotel, we headed in for breakfast and then went to Tesco to get some snacks for the day. We then made our way to the sports centre. When we arrived, we saw many teams warming up and all the teams’ tents set up. Before our warmup, our team was invited for professional netball team pictures and it looked very professional. After the pictures, we did a warmup and the NHEHS U16 Netball National team were ready to play.

We played a total of 9 matches and we were proud of our performance throughout each game. Our first match was against Solihull school where we played strong and kept our spirits high. The final score was a draw of 9-9 and we were very happy with the outcome. We continued our matches with a positive and supportive attitude until we played all our matches. Halfway through our matches, we were very grateful to see Mr Shoults, who travelled up to support the team. With support from the PE department, Mr Shoults and various parents and family members, we finished with 4 losses, 2 draws and 2 wins, and placed 12th in the country!

We are very proud of our achievements and will definitely use this tournament as a learning experience for our future steps as a team. We would like to give a special thank you to the whole PE department for all the amazing coaching and advice whilst we were playing and the outstanding support and encouragement on the side line.