When Netball World Cup Came to Sponne!!

It was one of the most exciting days ever for the PE staff at Sponne (well the ladies at least because we are all netballers ourselves and passionate about the game!)

The Netball World Cup 2019 is being hosted in Liverpool from 12-21 July and so to highlight this event we hosted a Primary Schools Mini World Cup Festival, which included the cluster High 5 Netball finals.   So, arranged by All England, our School Sports Manager of South Northamptonshire & Daventry, David Hanson and myself, the actual World Cup Trophy came to Sponne for the day so all our staff, students and the Primary Schools at the event had the opportunity to come and see it and have their photo taken with it!  We were not allowed to touch it and when Kelly Thompson (All England representative) held it, she had to wear special white gloves!

The festival was a great success and we had 25 leaders umpiring and scoring and over 250 children and adults playing, supporting and watching netball and having a great time – so amazing for our sport!

Lotty Dawson in 9CP has had a brilliant year! She has raced in the next round of the National Youth Cycling series coming 4th in a field of the top 35 riders in the UK

This result will firmly put her in the top 10 UK ranking which was one of her targets for this season

More recently she also did very well in the International Tour of Belgium, just missing out on a podium position for queen of the mountains.

Well done Lotty!

An unprecedented 16 Sponne Year 7 students were selected to compete for the District in the County Athletics Championships at Corby on Monday and results were truly stunning.

For the boys, Oscar H was 6th in the shot, Harvey T was 2nd in the 800m as was Danny K in the discus, George L in the hurdles and Jedan S in the long jump. To top things off, we also had two County Champions!! Harry P in the high jump and James B in the javelin.

The girls’ results were equally impressive. Mia B competed in the javelin, Ellie H finished 7th the discus, Georgie P was 6th the 100m, Cerise A was third in the shot, Phoebe B was second in the long jump as was Simone S in the 800m and Evie T in the 200m. There were also two County Champions in the girls’ events – Katy T in the high jump and Amelia T in the javelin.

Well done to all those that took part!!

Mr Gercs

Three Sponne students were selected to compete for the County in Regional Multi Event Championships in Essex and all did themselves proud!!

The U15 girls (Yr8/9) compete in the pentathlon – the five events being hurdles, shot, high jump, long jump and 800m. Emily H competed for Sponne and eventually finished in an outstanding 10th place pulling herself from 19th to 10th place in the final race, the 800m.

Sponne had two representatives in the U17 girls competition. These girls compete on the heptathlon – competing in the events as above plus the javelin and the 200m.Mia W finished in a very creditable 17th position whilst Georgia C exceeded all expectations to finish in 9th position. Well done girls – super performances!!

Mr Gercs

Lost Souls of Auschwitz by Jacob Moreton Year 12

After a trip to Auschwitz I was inspired to create this installation, which is currently on display on our Yellow Brick Road area.
Each of my shoes represents a real person who perished at Auschwitz.
These shoes are all personalised and accompanied with a tag which summarises that individuals achievements in life and sadly how they died as a victim of the holocaust.

Next year's May Day bank holiday has been changed from Monday 4th May to Friday 8th May 2020 to coincide with the 75th anniversary of VE Day. For further information please see the following news story:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48565417

On Wednesday 5^th June, Sponne took part in the annual Year 7 and Year 8 South Northants Athletics Championships with some outstanding results!!

The Year 7 boys finished in 2^nd position from the 10 schools, finishing just one point behind the eventual winners. Individually many of the students were taking part in athletics for the first time, having practised in PE lessons and after school. Any student finishing in the top three in the Year 7 event will be selected to compete for the district in the County Championships on July 1^st and Sponne had no less than 7 individual qualifiers; Danny K (discus) George L (hurdles) Jamie B (javelin) and Jedan S (long jump) all finished in the top 3 whilst Harvey T (800m), Oscar H (shot) and Harry P (high jump) all won, becoming the district champions!!

The Year 7 girls fared even better finishing as district champions!! There were individual victories for Ellie H (discus), Katie Taylor (high jump) and Amelia T (javelin) and 5 other qualifiers – Georgie P (100m), Evie T (200m), Simone S (800m), Mia B (javelin) and Phoebe B (long jump)

On Wed 22 May we took 2 teams to CCS to play in Northampton Town FC 6-aside girls’ football tournament, a Year 7 team and a Year 8 team.  Harvey Taylor and Sam Turner both in Year 11 finished their exams and raced out to the mini-bus to join us to be our referees!

The Y8’s had a tough group playing mainly Y9s from Duston, Weavers, Weston Favell, Moulton, Wootton Park and CCS. They played hard and finished mid table.

The Y7’s also had a tough competition playing CCS, Moulton, Weavers, and Duston.  They made it to the semi-final and played Duston again beating them 2-1 goals coming from Lucy and Simone.  On to the final against Moulton with end to end play!  Eventually, Simone scored a cracking goal and Lucy as GK saved at least 3 or 4 shots from a desperate Moulton side in the dying minutes!!

Fantastic result to Y7 Sponne they were the champions and come home with the trophy, singing most of the way!

A special thank you to Sam and Harvey who did an exceptional job not only in refereeing but actually organising and running the Y8/9 tournament – Well done lads!

On the 24th May 16 leaders were invited to take part in a leadership conference/course where we were taught how to lead new sports some of which we had never heard of before like Goal Ball, deal with stress within a variety of situations and conquering fear and challenges when trying to reach a goal.

Across the day, we were spoken to by a bronze commonwealth games 2010 medallist for Badminton, Liz Cann. She talked about strategies useful to help overcome stress, anxiety and fear when aiming for something especially in sport. Persistence can change failure into great achievement!  The overall theme was to continue to work to your full potential, even if it’s uncomfortable, until you get where you want to be.

Upon arriving at St Catherine’s college, Oxford, we were greeted by a member of the Outreach and Admissions team – dedicated to opening the college up to potential applicants and showing them just why it is the largest of the colleges of The University of Oxford.

We entered a small lecture room and were talked through the application process and provided with some facts and figures related to both the college and the university as a whole. We were also given a taste of the types of questions an applicant may be asked in one of their interviews – one of the most beneficial parts of the day in my opinion as, due to only 6 students taking part in the trip, the college representative was able to listen to our suggestions of how we would answer the questions and give feedback on the sort of answers interviewers look for and prefer to hear from applicants. Two second-year students at the college also joined in at the end to answer a series of questions we had written up for them, mainly about student life at Oxford University and how they viewed the application process in hind-sight.

After the talk had concluded we were taken on a tour of the college and shown its extensive facilities, including the gym, punt house, library, common rooms and study areas, grounds and dining hall. We then stayed in the dining hall and were provided with lunch, which surpassed all expectations, before making our way back to the lecture room for a sample lecture.

The sample lecture was given by a pair of post-graduate students, each working towards a PhD in Biology, specifically related to human DNA. This session provided a helpful insight into the process of learning and applying knowledge in a lecture scenario.

All in all, the day was a great success and I and the other students present found it to be a very informative and helpful trip.

Dillon Bishop, Year 12