St Catherine’s School, Bramley Director of Sport Nancy Moore on tactics to ensure girls keep on playing and enjoying games

Sport is an integral part of school life at St Catherine’s. The girls take pride in representing their school across all sports and at all abilities. Over 80% of each year group are involved in sport and this continues into the Sixth Form, either in team sports or individual endeavours.

We are proud to coach five senior lacrosse teams and four U18 netball teams and offer over 18 different sports across the school. Dance opportunities here are also inspiring, with 32 dance classes a week – including Ballet, Modern, Tap, Street Dance and Musical Theatre – in our purpose-built dance studio. Our Dance School Principal Lizi Eringa has taught and examined dance classes in the UK, Europe and Asia and holds the Professional Dancer’s Teaching Diploma from the Royal Academy of Dance. 

So how do we achieve such high participation? Our ethos is to ensure that we provide a positive and engaging environment which allows all girls to develop a love of sport. Our aim is to ensure this continues throughout their lives. Every girl is welcome to attend regular training sessions across all sports, and we provide inter-school fixtures from A to G teams throughout the season to ensure every girl has the opportunity to represent the school.

Sport provides great camaraderie helping to support, encourage and improve the less naturally athletic. Girls feel a loyalty and accountability to one another and revel in the team spirit. This becomes particularly evident during House Sports where the teams are fully inclusive, encouraging teamwork, leadership and friendships.

“Our ethos is to ensure that we provide a positive and engaging environment which allows all girls to develop a love of sport”

Some girls naturally find the strategy and tactics of a team game more engaging, while others like to focus on their own individual performance and strive for their personal best. We help girls to find ‘their’ place in sport, whether it be mainstream sports, the gymnastic or equestrian team, or just having fun in recreational sports, such as ultimate frisbee and badminton. An extensive extracurricular programme allows every opportunity to participate in all our main sports alongside their curriculum-based lessons. This combination provides several hours of sporting or physical activity every week.

Role models are also very helpful in illustrating the long-term opportunities. We currently have five lacrosse specialists, four netball specialists, two swimming specialists, two gymnastics specialists and a tennis coach – all of whom inspire our girls. We are proud that several represent their country on a national level, as do many St Catherine’s alumnae. The games and individual sports captains are admired by both their peers and the younger girls and exemplify what is possible beyond ability alone through their leadership, motivation, strength of character and team loyalty. 

We support and celebrate girls’ sporting achievements outside of school, whether this be the team of riders bringing home regular places at equestrian events or Emily King, who gained 1st place in the British Indoor Sky Diving Championships maintaining her U18 top ranking in the UK. Our girls understand that balancing sport with academic commitments reaps great personal and team rewards. Our successes in sports involve a huge team effort and a commitment that goes into every lesson and every fixture. We wear our blue and gold St Catherine’s colours with great pride. 

St Catherine’s School, Bramley stcatherines.info

Further reading: Girls on top – why boys’ sports are so cool for girls

Feature Featured girls sport prep senior Sixth Form St Catherine's School Bramley