12 December 2022
Mrs Caroline Treacy, Director of Sport
Pupils at nearby Godstone Primary School have been enjoying hockey lessons this term with Woldingham’s Head of Hockey Mr Ben Allberry (pictured with Woldingham students) as part of our outreach programme. I feel very passionately about access to sport, particularly at primary schools, where often there isn’t a specialist to teach certain sports. Having worked with Godstone Primary last year too, setting up links to give them access to swim at Woldingham, this year the PE Department has gone a step further by using our expertise to give pupils a taste of a variety of different sports.
Both Mr Allberry and the pupils have loved the experience.
Mr Allberry explains, “Godstone Primary pupils in Years 3 to 6 have shown wonderful tenacity and a thirst to learn as well as experienced the infectious joy of learning a new sport. The course of sessions has seen them go from holding a hockey stick for the first time to playing matches. A highlight for Years 3 and 4 was the introduction of gumshields. Once they had stopped taking them out and dropping them on the floor, they showed great hockey potential!
The older pupils in Years 5 and 6 have just begun to learn how to tackle each other and are very much looking forward to playing more games in the upcoming weeks. The players have demonstrated wonderful skills with increasing confidence. I am hoping to see them playing on Woldingham’s astro in the new year.”
Mr Patrick Dunford, Head of PE at Godstone Primary said, "The hockey lessons were fantastic - the children absolutely loved them. Ben was a great teacher. His classes were engaging and interesting for pupils with very little experience of hockey. They made great progress.”
Godstone Primary pupils also had lots to say about their hockey lessons:
"I liked the mini matches and we had lots of fun!" Chloe
"He was a fun teacher and had loads of nice hockey sticks." Kian
"I liked hitting the ball to practise our skills." Albie
"I liked learning about 'pace and space' and running around." Matilda
"I liked the mini matches and trying to 'panna*' people." Max
After Christmas, PE staff will give netball lessons at Godstone Primary and in the summer term, Mr Ben Ladd Gibbon will teach cricket. In addition, our Lower Sixth students on the Higher Sports Leadership Award programme will work with Key Stage 1 pupils.
The whole PE Department is so pleased to be able to ‘give back’ to others in our local community. With Godstone Primary and its pupils, we are also having a lot of fun doing this.
*Hitting the ball through an opponent’s legs.