Sport

How we missed enjoying sport together over the lockdowns! We have more than made up for it since. It was wonderful to have business as usual this year with regular and plentiful sporting fixtures and some stand-out results and achievements. This year saw higher-than-ever levels of participation, competitive spirit, and personal achievements whether pupils were new to a sport or already an elite sportsperson.

Drama, commitment and fun ensued, whatever the weather, with some pupils trying sports for the very first time, post-pandemic, not to mention personal bests, medals and memories to last a lifetime. There were many sports team successes in tournaments across all sports, but it was the large number of fixtures played at all levels, realising our aims to increase participation for all, that chimed with our school values the most. St Peter’s Sport is thriving with much more to come.

St Peter’s 2-8 Sport starts young!

All children at St Peter’s 2-8 participate in two specialised Physical Education lessons a week, as well as a dedicated swimming lesson. The children learn the skills of many competitive games as well as gymnastics and dance, and Inter-House competitions take place at the end of each half term for both Year 2 and 3. This year we enjoyed interhouse hockey in October, interhouse tag rugby in January, interhouse netball and interhouse football in March. This was a fantastic opportunity for the children to put their newly learnt skills into a more competitive yet supportive environment.

In the Christmas term, our Year 3s visited Yarm School to take part in a hockey and tag rugby workshop. This was the first experience of interschool sport for our older children, where they loved interacting with others. As we moved into the Easter term, our focus turned towards netball and football. In March we were delighted to host Yarm School for a chance to show off our wonderful new skills through a variety of different games and activities. In our core PE lessons, the children demonstrated excellent creative skills in our dance and gymnastics lessons. They worked collaboratively to produce some excellent routines which they performed in front of their peers.

As spring became summer, we certainly made the most of the amazing weather. Our children enjoyed getting to grips with some tricky cricket skills. It was brilliant to see the effort from all children including our nursery, when practising their running, jumping and throwing events. We once again welcomed our friends from Yarm School to take part in a cricket workshop, putting our bowling, batting and fielding skills to the test.

In May, both Years 2 and 3 had their House swimming gala. A record number of events were held over 25m in both individual events and team relays, showing an amazing standard of swimming. Records were broken in Year 2 by Caleb, Martha, Hugo and Oliver, and in Year 3, Olivia. The winners for both year groups were Micklegate. Mr Maycock, Head of Swimming, was very impressed!

At the end of June, we welcomed Sean Gaffney to St Peter’s 2-8 to celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Sean delivered an assembly to the whole school before leading an energetic fitness session, which the children thoroughly enjoyed!

Sports Day

In bright June sunshine, we enjoyed a wonderful St Peter’s 2-8 Sports Day, with Reception and Year 1 children in the morning and Year 2 and Year 3 in the afternoon. Nursery showcased their sports skills a few days later.

We were so proud of all our Sports Day superstars. The atmosphere was fantastic, with staff and parents bursting with pride to see everybody smiling and cheering one another on in their races. Every child took part in a variety of events on the day, and before Sports Day children competed in field events such as high jump, long jump and ball throw. Despite the warm weather the children performed extremely well, with some children breaking school records!

All the children were incredible and tried their absolute best for themselves and their Houses with huge smiles on their faces. Congratulations must also go to Eva (Reception), Arlo (Reception), Charlotte (Year 1), Henry (Year 1), Izzy (Year 2), Hamish (Year 2), Adriana (Year 3) and Barnaby (Year 3) for winning Athlete of the Year in the respective year groups; Max (Reception) and Sophia (Year 3) for winning the Sportspersonship Trophy; and lastly, Beatrix (Year 1) and Manny (Year 2) for winning Rita Resilience trophies.

Micklegate won the Reception and Year 1 Sports Day in the morning, with Monk taking the top prize in the Year 2 and 3 Sports Day in the afternoon. The overall winners of the St Peter’s 2-8 Sports Day 2022 was Monk House.

Special thanks to Miss Flockhart and Miss Hopper, and all 2-8 staff, for this wonderful day. Miss Flockhart, Head of PE, said: “My thanks to all who came to spectate. You created a lovely, encouraging atmosphere in which the children could thrive!”

Nursery PE Showcase

Following Sports Day, it was the turn of our littlest ones to show off their skills in the Nursery Physical Education Showcase Lesson for family members and carers. The activities demonstrated their fundamental skills through various games, movements and balances, finishing off with a competitive obstacle relay race. Miss Flockhart and Miss Hopper were so proud of the children’s progress and cannot wait to see them progress further in Reception.

St Peter’s 8-13 Hockey

Hockey saw some amazing results this year. Our U11 Girls’ Hockey Team were joint winners in the plate competition at the IAPS Hockey tournament in October, and the U13, U12 and U11 Girls’ Hockey squads won the In2Hockey County Tournaments in November. The U13 and U11 teams remained unbeaten throughout the whole competition. The U13 hockey girls were thrilled to make it to the North Final, losing out to GSAL in the end after a valiant effort. They have all been working very hard on both their technical skills and game play and it was wonderful to see it all pay off.

The U11 Boys won the In2Hockey Regional Tournament in February and came third in the U11 IAPS qualifiers. At the end of April, congratulations went to the U11 boys who won the England Hockey In2Hockey North East of England finals. They were under pressure to win their final match by 5 goals which they managed to do!

Our U13 Boys’ Hockey Team won the HMC Hockey Finals in March, victorious in all their games!

Outside school, Alf, Rohan and Sam should be commended for playing for the North East of England Hockey Team in the National Finals at the end of term.

Cricket Cricket skills were on display this year at all levels. The U13A cricket team won the Yorkshire Cup in early September, with a fantastic performance. A special mention goes to Seb who was Man of the Match with an amazing six wickets.

We have also been very successful in the IAPS Boys Cricket over the last few years and were asked to host the event, our first year doing so. The competition ran over the summer term, where all IAPS schools were invited to enter a team into a national knockout competition. In the end, we just lost out to Merchant Taylor’s Prep in the last eight, who progressed to the semi-finals at St Peter’s. The four teams who made Finals Day were Merchant Taylor’s Prep London, Westbourne House, Taunton Prep and Bedford Prep. In a fantastic day, with perfect weather, Taunton Prep proved ultimately victorious.

In March, St Peter’s was also proud to be selected as one of four girls’ cricket hubs in North Yorkshire. The four hubs, located in York, Scarborough, Ampleforth and Harrogate, offer 10 weeks of quality coaching from professional cricketers with two levels of girls’ only training sessions – development level and advanced level. The development programme includes sessions covering both softball and hardball, with an emphasis on enjoying the game while working on skills. Please contact r.johnson@yorkshirecb.com for more information and to apply.

The U11 girls’ cricket team played in the IAPS National Competition in mid-June with talented Hettie crowned Played of the Tournament. Well done!

Football

The U13 Boys’ Football team displayed excellent teamwork and footwork when they won the Aysgarth School Spirit of Soccer competition in March. The team enjoyed a wonderful day and were delighted to finish as tournament winners.

Netball

The U13s battled a fierce day of competition to come second in the York and District competition, a great achievement.

St Peter’s 8-13 hosted a netball tournament for teams that may not ordinarily get the chance to take part in competitions with over 140 local York girls in attendance. Not even February’s Storm Dudley could stop these players from improving their skills, developing teamwork and having fun.

In March, our determined U12 girls enjoyed a fantastic morning at the York and District Netball tournament. The B team won the B tournament and the A team lost 5-4 in a close, nail-biting final. It was great to see the fantastic progress made since the start of the season.

Rugby

Congratulations to the U13 Rugby Sevens team who won the first tournament of the season in February at Durham School. They also managed to win the Terrington Hall Tournament and came second at Millfield. At the end of March, the U13 Rugby Sevens team played in the HSBC Rosslyn Park National Schools Sevens and improved their play throughout the day in the Waterfall Tournament.

Tennis

The U11 tennis teams had a wonderful day in Newcastle in mid-June at the HMC North East Tennis Tournament. Viktoria and Tabitha finished fourth out of 12 schools in the final placings, our best-ever finish!

J4 and J5 enjoyed their very own Wimbledon style tournament in June with several exciting matches.

In July, Hettie was awarded the sought-after Whitehead Cup and Sam narrowly beat Alfred for the hotly contested Sargeant Cup, the popular senior open tennis tournaments.

Swimming

The 8-13 swim squad had a super year. Well done to the U13 girls Alice, Raya, Phoebe and Clara (J5) who finished sixth in the country for freestyle in the finals of the English Schools Swimming Association Competition at the end of November. This strong performance was followed up by a strong 10th in the medley relay final in the same afternoon. Congratulations to Alice who was also selected for the National Swimming Talent Programme in recognition of her hard work, dedication, attitude and ability in the pool.

The squad then competed in the IAPS National Swimming Championships later in the term. A large squad of children qualified for this event, a wonderful achievement in itself. The J5 girls gave a terrific performance, with Raya and Alice becoming national champions in their individual events; the girls also achieved second and third in the relays, pipping Mount Kelly to second place overall, just behind Millfield Prep.

Based on our swim squad’s consistently excellent performances, they were then invited to the World School Swim Championships at the Olympic pool in Stratford where they were awarded a breath-taking 18 medals! Read more in our cover story!

In April, the rescheduled HMC Swimming Championships saw our valiant U9 girls crowned as overall champions! The U9 boys came second, the U10 girls third, U10 boys fourth, U11 girls second and U11 boys seventh.

What an outstanding year for swimming. A particular mention to Mr Maycock and his team for all their efforts and unswerving dedication.

Sports Day

Sports Day, at the start of July, was a great success. It was so wonderful to have everyone on campus after a long break, and with such perfect weather, sunny with a breeze. Super camaraderie mixed with fierce competition made for a wonderful day where Ainsty won the shuttle relay but York were winners of the B team and the overall competition. Ensuring that nearly 400 children all got to compete in at least one event, in the right place at the right time, was quite an undertaking. Well done to Mr Savage and his team for such a fabulous day.

Ski Trip to Folgarida

Despite the difficulties presented by the pandemic, the 2022 ski trip eventually went ahead with a large party of 110 people attending; the usual happy mix of parents and pupils. It was a new experience for everybody, organising Covid passes, checking in online each morning and wearing masks on lifts. The children enjoyed their ski lessons and made great progress, in super conditions with plenty of sunshine. The après ski entertainment consisted of ice skating, crafting, quizzes, pizza nights and the ever-popular Karaoke competition! The children showed enthusiasm for the singing, rehearsing all week and enjoying the competition. Despite unusual restraints, everything went superbly well and in resort the trip felt normal.