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

On 10^th May, Sponne School took part in the annual English Schools Athletics Cup. This event is open to all schools and each athlete needs to compete in a track and a field event with points being awarded for each performance with the school scoring the highest combined total winning. The age groups are Junior (Yr7 and Yr8) and Intermediate (Yr 9 and Yr10)

The Junior boys finished in an outstanding 2^nd place, just 9 points behind winners NSB. There were outstanding individual performances with Jeremy winning both the discus and the 300m. The inter boys also finished in 2^nd place in the County, with outstanding performances coming from Lachlan in the hurdles, Jack in the 300m and Alfie in the high jump.

The Junior girls faired even better with the 12 girls comfortably winning the competition with Hayley producing some magnificent performances in both the javelin and the hurdles

The Inter girls were the stand out performers, however, with numerous first place finishes and high class performances. Leading scorers were Georgia in the 300m and triple jump, Katy in the 300m, Emily in the 800m, Anna in the shot, Sophie in the javelin and Mia in the hurdles.

The first three teams will now qualify for the Midlands B final but because their points score was so high, the Inter girls team will now qualify for the Midlands A final, competing against the 7 other strongest schools in the entire Midlands area. These events will take place in June.

Well done to all those that took part and good luck for the Midlands finals !!

Mr Gercs

It was our 2nd attempt at this Tournament and it consisted of 2 competitions, 12 teams, 30 leaders, persistent threat of storms…but the sun came out and shone for us (although we nearly lost the gazebo to the wind!)

What a fantastic afternoon of netball: running, jumping, twisting, turning, rebounds, whistles, goals!  The children seemed to really enjoy their games and they were played with skill, spirit and fair play.  The leaders did an awesome job of warming them up, giving them coaching points and cheering them on. Well done and thank you to our 2 Y7 girls teams who played in the friendly competition to ensure everyone had lots of games and managed brilliantly by Phoebe, Lucy & Alex.

All 12 umpires did a brilliant job of being firm but fair “the standard of umpiring was excellent and they did such a good job, judging it just right between allowing the game to flow and pulling up the fouls.”

Congratulations to Nicholas Hawksmoor who won both the friendly tournament and the qualifying competition.  They will now represent our Cluster in the District Finals being hosted by Sponne in June.

On Wednesday 8^th May we held a Level 2 Archery competition for years 3&4. The leaders had to do some training before they arrived, that consisted of how to score the different events, show the children how to do the events and how to set up the different events. We partnered up and had a go ourselves.  It was harder than it looked but loads of fun!

The year 3&4s arrived at about 4pm and were very excited.  All the schools went on an event and had a practise until it was time to start the competition. When it started David told them how each event was going to work, he then split them all up into groups. Each school went one at a time and did their best to score as many points as they could.  When they had all their arrows, they sat down and watched the other schools.

At the end of the evening the schools were called up one by one to collect their certificates to take back to their school. The winners were Staverton Primary School and have qualified for the Level 3 School Games Competition on the 11^th July at Moulton College.