NETBALL This year has been unusual for netball at St Dunstan’s. We started Michaelmas term with caution, running some netball shooting clinics which had regular attendees from Year 7 up to Year 10 with the hope that we would return to game play after the Christmas Exeat. Unfortunately, this was not the case. With another lockdown in action the school went back into remote learning, as did netball. We used Firefly to challenge our netballers to isolate and develop some personal player skills, including how we change direction, landing skills, agility, ball skills, core strength, turning in the air and ball handling. Throughout these 8 weeks both Lili Rieb-Smith and Natalie Bloomer put forward some innovative ideas on the development of the online programme. They were also integral in creating a virtual team environment and the senior netball squads and staff thoroughly enjoyed some team bonding and social sessions. Then came the return to school. With three weeks left of Lent term the focus was on reintegration and fun. The first week was a whirlwind of netballbased game play sessions, followed by two weeks of normal games and training sessions. In this time, we saw the competitive side to our netballers for House matches, giving staff the opportunity to see the enormous potential in many of our young players. There were mixed results across the board with some excellent displays of netball, sportsmanship and teamwork
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from all students who represented their House. With an abrupt end to our unconventional netball term, we have been fortunate to be able to run summer netball training and development sessions alongside our cricket programme. The number of pupils attending after school has been immense especially in Years 7, 8, 9 and those dedicated Year 10s, with a special mention to the boys who have attended training to develop their skills and understanding of the game. Although training has been
