15 October 2025
Miss Jaclyn Leach, Director of Sport
It has been a fantastic start to the sporting year at Woldingham. With over thirty clubs on offer before school, at lunchtime and after-school, we have been delighted with the commitment and dedication to sporting activities shown by our students.
As parents will have read in my weekly updates, the major sport this term has been hockey, however, there have been some excellent performances in netball, swimming and cross country, which we have been delighted to see, and which I’m sure have been very much enjoyed by the girls.
In hockey, our teams have enjoyed plenty of mid-week matches and Saturday block fixtures against schools including Caterham, Lingfield, Gordon’s and Colfe’s. Our U12s have shown incredible energy, with ABCD teams competing regularly and showing fantastic progress. Across all year groups we have seen the full range of wins, losses and draws - all underpinned by superb team spirit. The U15 XI has proven to be our most consistent team, putting in a series of dominant performances across both cup matches and regular fixtures. The squad remains in the Independent Schools Hockey Cup after a very impressive second round win away at New Hall School. Congratulations to everyone who has played hockey for the school and showed tremendous resilience and teamwork. We are looking forward to another half-term of hockey on return from the break.
In netball, we’ve enjoyed some excellent cup matches and tournament play. At the time of writing, the 1st VII and U15 VII remain in the Sisters in Sport competition, having had brilliant runs to reach round two. The 1st VII, U15 VII and U14 VII put on brilliant displays in the first round of the Surrey Finals. We are still awaiting final confirmation, but 3rd place finishes for the 1st VII and U14 VII, means it is likely they will just miss out on reaching the Finals. However, our U15 VII, with a 2nd place finish, should have qualified for the next stage, which will be held in March. In quite an incredible display of grit and determination, the girls came back from 3-5 down at half-time against both Surbiton and Epsom College to win both matches. They also beat Wallington and Coloma to, hopefully, qualify. This is a huge achievement and we are incredibly proud of the squad.
Our swim squads have taken part in friendly galas with Hawthorns and Caterham, as well as the Surrey Relays held at the Surrey Sports Park. At the District Gala, the Year 7 took first place, with Year 8 and Year 9 finishing second and the senior squad third.
In cross country, a 2nd place finish for Year 8 and a 3rd place finish for Year 9 was a real highlight. At the district finals our students again demonstrated their resilience and mental toughness to put in another determined set of performances. The top individuals at districts included: Allegra H, Year 7 - 17th; Phoebe F, Year 8 - 8th; Eugenia C-M, Year 9 - 4th; Vaishvi P, Lower Sixth – 5th; and Alice M, Upper Sixth - 4th.
In individual news, congratulations to cricketers Ria P in Year 8, who has been selected for the Lord’s Youth U14/U15 squad for the 25/26 season, and to Molly T, Year 7, who has been selected for the Lord’s Youth Development squad. Molly is also a very talented climber, with bouldering her speciality. Molly competed in a ropes competition amongst Team England and Team GB climbers, finishing in a brilliant 11th place. Congratulations too to rugby player, Noush D in Year 11, who played in the Atlantic Youth Touch Club with the England Touch youth team in the summer. Noush is also a Surrey U15 representative.
In the second half of term, we are looking forward to another set of block fixtures as our hockey squads continue to push on, as well as to seeing continued progress in the cups. Alongside this, we are also excited to see all our girls continue to take up as many opportunities as they can to be active and achieve their sporting potential.
Finally, best of luck to all the students going on the Dubai Cricket and Swimming tour during the half term break. Lifelong memories are about to be made – have a brilliant time, everyone.