Sport

Getting to know... Miss Nicholas Director of Sport

1. How would you describe yourself in three words?

Enthusiastic, loyal and honest.

2. Who would play you in a film of your life?

Sienna Miller or Alana Greszata - one of them might actually get me to appear a lot more ‘cool’ (or whatever slang word you girls use now) than I actually am!

3. What would be your dream sport to try and why?

Slalom skiing- I didn’t try skiing until I was 21 and absolutely loved it! I have skied every year since. I ran the Ski Team at Godolphin & Latymer and always thought how I would love to have been taught how to ski race. It’s like Athletics but on a hill... with snow!

4. If you could be friends with any sportsman or woman who would it be and why?

Usain Bolt - I have a feeling it would be 24/7 fun.

5. What’s your favourite thing about teaching PE?

Passing on my passion for sport and getting girls to believe in themselves. Seeing girls enjoy sport and improve makes the job worth it - cliché but true.

6. What is your most embarrassing moment at NHEHS?

I spent the first few weeks saying I was from Godolphin & Latymer on the phone to parents, not NHEHS. It did cause quite a bit of confusion and it was very embarrassing.

A Quick Overview...

What a year it has been for sport at NHEHS! Teams have remained competitive in a huge range of sports at Borough and Country level, including the Year 7 Badminton team becoming borough champions, the Cross Country Team winning the Ealing Championships and the U12 Cricket Team winning the Lady Taverners Middlesex Cup. We have again got to Regional Finals in a range of sports including hockey, cross country and athletics and got to National Finals in netball, dance and waterpolo.

This year has also seen us appoint the first ever Games Captain who sits on the Head Girl Team, take a successful Sports Tour to Spain and run our second ever Sports Awards Dinner, where we welcomed Tamsin Greenway and Perri Shakes-Drayton to provide inspirational speeches. Participation levels at all clubs has remained high, with cricket and football in particular continuing to grow in popularity and success.

Although perhaps cliché, I can only sum up my feelings of this year as ‘being proud’ in terms of everything as a school we have managed to achieve! I would like to thank all girls for their contributions to school sport and hope as a school we can continue to support girls to find the sport they love and help them reach their sporting goals!

Miss Nicholas

Staff vs Students!

NETBALL MATCH

Y13 Player of the Match: Sabrina Anwar Teachers Player of the Match: Miss Bushell

FOOTBALL MATCH

Y13 Player of the Match: Michela Mascioli Teacher Player of the Match: Mr Futter

On an unusually warm and sunny March day, fourteen Year 13 students prepared to take on the teachers in a football match. The warm up entailed goal-shooting practise and the Year 13s running around the pitch in order to intimidate the teachers. Taking this further, the Year 13 team prepared a chant to show their competition who’s boss.

“a lovely way to continue our Year 13 traditions”

The game started off with strong attack from the teacher’s team. Maybe a bit too strong as Mr Smith managed to smash Sabrina’s nose, leaving a shower of blood that stained her white shoes. Accordingly, Mr Smith was given a yellow card by the referee (Mr Shoults). The first goalie managed to stop 1 of the 3 goals, unfortunately giving the teachers a 2-0 headstart. Disastrously, the new goalkeeper let in 3 more goals. However, Mr Schneider heroically left his own goal to aid the Year 13 goalkeeper, therefore ending the match at 5 - 1 to the teachers. After the match, we shook hands with teachers and took pictures to capture the moment, accepting our defeat (not). This was a lovely way to continue our Year 13 traditions.

Tamarah Asassa and Mathilde Roca, Year 13

Barcelona Sports Tour

During the October half term, 40 students across all years embarked on Notting Hill’s very first international sports tour to Barcelona! We competed in netball, hockey and swimming against a number of teams from the UK. The location and beautiful views definitely lifted our spirits and we all felt ready for our tournament to come. The hockey team drew against a very strong Spanish team, gaining inspiration from watching the Men’s Spanish vs Argentina Game. The netball Senior Team came first in the tournament beating the Y11 team by just one goal. The swimming team came 2nd in their relay.

Another enjoyable moment on the trip was our outing to the beach and our day out in central Barcelona. It was a really nice way for us to celebrate the end of the tour, with the chance to shop and do some sightseeing. To top off the day, the weather was particularly spectacular! So, we all came home with a tan (or burn), aching limbs, but more importantly with a sense of achievement!

Rosie Glenn, Year 12

Year 10 Sports Leaders

On the 27th February 2018, the Year 10 girls hosted a High 5 netball tournament for six visiting local schools and two teams from our Junior School. Thanks to our fabulous facilities, we could run the tournament in our Sports Hall. It was a long afternoon, with back-to-back netball matches from 1pm – 4pm, but, our fantastic Sports Leaders rose to the occasion and ran a superb tournament. This year was unique - it was the first time we have ever run this particular tournament inside the Sports Hall, as it is traditionally an outdoor tournament, but it all ran smoothly and was a success. Our Junior School won, Little Ealing won our Shooting Competition and Fielding won our Fair Play Award.

Many visiting staff commented on how well our Year 10s led and what a credit they were to the school. A well done to all the Sports Leaders who made this event special and successful!

Mrs Scott

Dance

On Sunday 20th May, 38 girls travelled to Dartford for the regional round of Dance Challenge UK. This is a prestigious competition that is attended by many established dance schools in the country. With the standard of competition higher than last year, the girls kept their composure and performed all routines to the best of their ability.

And finally...the results were in! Five girls from each routine (pictured above) went back on stage for the Awards Ceremony, quiet and anxious for the results. Our Child Soldiers routine performed by Year 7 placed 4th, and our Love routine performed by Year 10 placed 2nd; both of these teams qualified for the National Finals in Blackpool. It was a fun, successful and proud day for the dance squads at Notting Hill and Ealing.

Miss Adams

Netball

The Middlesex National Schools County round was held at LEH on 19th November. We went through to finals, which was against LEH who certainly had the home advantage! We won that match convincingly, which meant we were through to the Regional Round. This was held at Rainham School in Kent on 28th January. Each of our following matches were tight and we only lost one game to Surbiton High. With such a fantastic playing record in a competitive round robin tournament, we were joint first at the end of the day, drawing on points for 1st place. Owing to goal difference we qualified in second place, rather than first, however, this won us the right to go to the National Netball Finals in March!

The National Netball Finals were held at Sedbergh School in Welwyn Garden city on the 17th March. Despite the challenging weather conditions, we battled on, winning four of our eight games. This meant we were nineth out of the eighteen teams at the finals- giving us the title of best team overall in the country. We were voted by the officials as the team who displayed the best sportsmanship and were awarded the Endeavour Trophy. This was a lovely award to win and one we were very proud to receive.

Sophie Claxton, Year 9

U12 Middlesex Netball Tournament Report

The U12 netball squad competed at the Middlesex County Tournament on 13th March. All twelve girls played exceptionally well and showed how much they had improved throughout the season. It was a challenging start, but we managed to gain various victories, despite some nervous mistakes at the beginning. Our team finished their pool in second place, only losing one out of the eight games played. We pumped ourselves full of energy and excitement as we entered the semi-finals - out of 18 teams we made it into the top four.

It was a tough start to the semi-final game, Godolphin and Latymer came out strong, scoring several goals in quick succession, but we quickly regrouped and got back in control. We fought back with a mixture of strong defence and accurate shooting - pulling back by the final whistle to be only two goals behind G+L, 6-4, and to finish up joint 3rd overall in the tournament.

Great team spirit was demonstrated throughout the afternoon - giving us the confidence to come back even stronger in Year 8!

Caitlin Thompson and Genevieve Pearce, Year 7

Hockey

This year, senior hockey has expanded in popularity, with a large cohort of girls in Years 10-13 attending weekly morning training. During training sessions, we have worked with smaller groups in order to improve individual skills and confidence when under pressure. In turn, we applied this in game-like situations when playing 11-a-side matches. Seeing everyone’s attitude towards hockey change over the course of the season was incredible. Many girls have now decided to play at club level. This was crucial when competing as the team was generally more comfortable with the ball and confident regarding their individual skill set.

Our highlight of the season was the Ibstock tournament where we competed against high level teams such as Godolphin and Latymer and Surbiton, yet we still managed to acheive 4th place. Our team’s best asset was the team morale and camaraderie, and seeing the skills practised in training replicated on the pitch. Next year we hope to continue expanding training sessions and taking the standards of our hockey higher so we can leave school in Year 13 knowing that hockey at Notting Hill will continue to progress and thrive.

Philippa Jones and Nathalie Wickremeratne, Year 12

Football Badminton

This year, football has really progressed, especially for the U13s as we have been to two tournaments this year and might be placed in a league next year. A memorable match was defintely the thrilling game against West London Free School. Though we lost 5-4, the experience of playing 11-a-side on the real grass pitch was great. Winning against William Perkins 4-0 was a great morale boost as they play in a league and we don’t, highlighting our massive improvement.

Finally winning the GDST tournament at the beginning of the year shows our massive improvement in football and how helpful the training for football club has been. This year in football club, we started training sessions on a Friday lunchtime and recently they have moved to a Thursday lunchtime. They consist of one of the Brentford F.C.’s coaches coming into school and helping us with our skills and gameplay. We always warm up with the footballs and then we usually go into a mini-match or another drill. The training has been helpful and we have already learnt so much as a team and shall continue to do so next year.

Neve Grosvenor and Ayna Sidhu, Year 8

Badminton club has been well-attended since the start of the school year, and club members have made considerable progress in their skills and understanding of the game. Four Year 7 pupils from Badminton Club were selected to represent the school at the Ealing Borough Championships on Monday 15th January at Dormers Wells Leisure Centre, in Southall.

Each round consisted of two singles and one doubles match, and the team went into the final round with a 100% success rate. In the final round, the Dormers Wells A Team and NHEHS were neck and neck, having each won a singles match, leaving just the doubles left to decide the outcome of the tournament. Keeping cool and calm under pressure, NHEHS delivered a swift series of clears and drop shots to win the necessary 21 points.Congratulations to Tara Al-Haddad, Sephera Forrester, Nyla Kete and Venus Rahman for becoming U12 Borough Champions, and worthy winners of their Gold Medals.

Mrs Scott

Cross Country

The cross country team have had continued success this term. On 13th of October, we went to the English Schools Cross Country Cup which took place at James Allens Girls School. Here, the girls put in huge team effort competing against schools from all over London. The Junior team was made up of Beatrice Allen and Ella Palmer from Year 7 and Amy Taylor, Eva-Marie Weintraub, Sofia Bevers and Sadie Packham-Lawrence from Year 8. The Intermediate team was made up of Jasmine Palmer, Natasha Jones, Lauren Beale, Mia Mutadich from Year 9 and Fiona Coutts and Ella Pilkington from Year 10.

For the first time ever, the intermediate team qualified for the regional round. The regional round took place on 11th of November at St Columbus College in St Albans, where the team consisted of Milly Buckroyd, Fiona Coutts, Ella Pilkington from Year 10 and Lauren Beale and Anaiya Thakore from Year 9; where the girls performed brilliantly. Lauren had two falls during the race and was completely covered in mud but still managed to finish and pull back a few places!

Miss Munro

Athletics Tennis

We have been very successful as a school in athletics this year, competing and winning many events against a variety of different schools. We trained at Perivale Athletics track every Wednesday after school, as well as every Monday and Friday morning on the school site.

The Year 7 and 8 Athletics Team were successful in making it to the Regionals Finals for the National Track and Field Cup. Particular mention should go to Sephera Forrester for clearing 1.35m in the high jump and Zoe Marsland for throwing 20.03m in javelin. Eva Marie Weintraub also impressed at the county round, running the 800m in 2 minutes 43 seconds.

Myself, Grace Kenyon, Isobel Thornton and Milly Buckroyd also all represented Ealing at the Middlesex English Schools Championships. An exceptional school effort was made at the GDST Athletics Rally on Monday 11th June where all GDST schools came together in Bath to compete against each other. The school finished 6th out of the 19 schools which attended; our highest ranked place in many years. Isabella Holmes ran 100m in 13.40, coming 1st place. I ran the 800m in 2 minutes 30 seconds, also gaining 1st place. All girls who attended the rally performed extremely well.

Twelve girls represented Ealing at the Year 7 and 8 Middlesex Championships. Again Sephera Forrester jumped well, clearing 1.35m and being crowned third place in the whole of Middlesex. Keerit Dhillon also placed 7th in 75m hurdles, which was a great result. Tennis activities last year were dominated by two major events, the GDST Senior Tennis Rally and the Aegon Tennis National Schools Competition.

On 27th June, three doubles pairs from Year 9, 10 and 12 took part in the GDST Rally at Queenswood school, Hatfield. The team got through the morning round. However, the second round proved more challenging and after some tense, closely fought matches, the team was knocked out. As this was the first time Notting Hill had taken part in this rally we viewed it as good experience and hope to return and do better next year.

Throughout the course of the summer term, an U15 tennis team played in the Aegon competition. Each round was knockout, with the first and last matches being the most challenging for the team. We won the first on a tight tiebreaker and continued to progress through the rounds until we got to the finals of our local area, where we were faced with our hardest match. The team played well but were outclassed on the day by our more experienced opponents. Unfortunately, this meant we were knocked out of the competition but are eager to enter again next year.

Sophie Claxton, Year 9

Jasmine Palmer, Year 9

Cricket

In January 2018, the U12 cricket team travelled to Lords Cricket Ground to compete in the Lady Taveners Indoor Middlesex Tournament. As a school, NHEHS have not competed in this tournament for 21 years.

Our first match was against Godolphin and Latymer, who fielded a total of three teams in the tournament. We were against their A team and as expected, their level of ability was very high. Unfortunately we lost 40-25. Our next couple of matches resulted in a flurry of wins, beating St Paul’s Girls’ School 6716, and Lady Margaret’s School 71-44.

We finished the group stages as runner up in our group, and progressed to the semi-finals where we were drawn against St Paul’s Girl’s School A Team. This was proved to be the closest of all of our matches, resulting in them only needing 15 runs off 10 balls. We put a stop to them winning by getting a couple of wickets, bowling straight and taking some catches, which ended in us winning 67-48. We made it to the finals!

For a second time that day, we faced Godolphin and Latymer A, however, we were determined to win this time. Finally, NHEHS were the U12 Lady Taveners Middlesex Champions, beating Godolphin and Latymer 63-22.

Eleanor Leathem, Year 7

Tasmin Greenway Perri Shakes-Drayton Nathalie Wicks and Sophie Claxton Sports Personalities of the Year

On Friday 4th May 2018, NHEHS held their second annual Sports Awards diner. This year’s guest speakers were Perri Shakes-Drayton, a world gold medallist in 400m and Tamsin Greenaway, an ex-England netballer and current director at Wasps Netball. Their inspirational speeches included their pathway to elite sport, and the hurdles that they overcame to reach their goals. We loved hearing from these athletes and getting the chance to ask questions and have photos with them at the end of the night was amazing. We hope that all of the girls took some key advice from the speakers and are able to excel in their own sporting successes.

This year we had a raffle with prizes including the much desired signed England rugby shirt, The Sweaty Betty goodies and two tickets to a Wasps netball game - this certainly added some extra excitement to the evening. After a lovely dinner, we celebrated the sporting achievements and commitments of the NHEHS students, including our annual awards such as Sports Personality of the Year, Player of the Year in individual sports and Unsung Hero. Even if students did not win awards, it was a great way to support their friends in their achievements.

Overall, the Sports Awards Dinner was another huge success and we look forward to upholding this tradition for another year.

Deepa Kumaran and Megan Burns, Year 13

U14 Netball Team - Winner of Team of the Year Award

WINNERS OF SPORTS AWARDS 2018

Junior Gymnast - Amy Taylor

Junior Dancer - Amber Bonnor- Morris

Junior Swimmer - Mairi Gillespie Senior Swimmer - Iola Ryland

Junior Waterpolo player - Evie Bryant Senior Waterpolo player - Hermione Morris

Junior Runner - Jasmine Palmer Senior Runner - Cameron Thomas

Junior Cricket player - Ellie Ritchie

Junior Footballer - Ayna Sidhu Senior Footballer - Lara Rowe

Junior Hockey player - Alice Scletcko Senior Hockey player - Nathalie Wickremeratne

Junior Netballer - Mia Mutadich Senior Netballer - Hannah Leathem Team of the Year - U14 Netball Team: Edith Elwes, Beatrice Farrell, Mia Mutadich, Ria Data-Jones, Natasha Jones, Jasmine Saha, Isabella Holmes, Sophie Claxton, Jasmine Palmer, Grace Kenyon, Amelia Samtani, Isabel Thornton

Unsung Hero Award - Jojo Loxton and Iola Ryland

Outstanding Contribution to Sport - Sophie Rollason and Mia Mutadich

Sports Personality of the Year - Sophie Claxton and Nathalie Wickremeratne