student’s view

Fencing has a long and successful history at Hymers, producing many successful fencers. However, a combination of leavers and the Covid pandemic has meant that activities did take a bit of a dip.

Fencing has taken on a new lease of life this academic year with an influx of eager new fencers which is very promising to see. It is so good to see that fencing will continue to flourish under Mr Blight and Mr Poplawski.

Over the last year it has been an honour to captain the Hymers fencing team as we represented the school and Yorkshire at various competitions. In January the Yorkshire Épée Championships took place and in the over 14 category I was excited to take the bronze medal. On 6 March the Hymers team took part in the Yorkshire Youth Championships which served as a qualifying competition for the British Youth Championships. It was a fantastic day and Tom, Oliver and myself all qualified to represent Hymers, Tom finished 5th in the under 12 boys foil, Oliver took 3rd in the under 12 boys foil and 1st in the under 12 boys épée, Andrew took 3rd in the under 14 boys foil and I took 3rd in the under 18 girls épée.

opportunity to see friends from all around the country and the venue is one of my favourites because of the amount of space.

The GB Cup is a championship accommodating a range of ages which took place on 4 June 2022 at The English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. In the women’s Épée group that I competed in, I was the youngest amongst a group of mostly veteran fencers which provided a great deal of experience to be learnt from experts at the sport. It was especially nice to bump into old Hymerian fencer Avni Pande who is currently at Oxford University. I have been fencing since I joined Hymers in 2014 in Year 5, it was something I had been eager to do and have benefitted from the camaraderie of the group. I have made some good friends in both the school group and also more widely throughout the country at the many competitions I have been to. This year has been particularly special for me as I was awarded school colours for fencing. I am extremely proud of this achievement.

This academic year will be my last at Hymers but I will look forward to seeing Hymers fencers and the coaches at competitions in the future. I am intending to continue fencing at university.

For anyone interested in fencing, please come along to see what we do. You might really like it, just as I did. The club meets after school on Fridays in the sports hall. It is open to senior and junior school pupils.

The British Championships took place in May at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield which involved hundreds of young fencers who had all qualified from their respective regional championships. This is a day I always look forward to because it gives me an

I would like to thank both Mr Blight and Mr Poplawski for their ongoing commitment to fencing at Hymers. Both of them travel a reasonable distance to coach and support us all and it is greatly appreciated.

Befreen Year 13

The children in Year 4 put on their Christmas Production to a live audience in the Judi Dench Theatre.