Despite 2020's upheavals, it's pleasing and heartening to see the school's end of term Sport's Report. Many successes including the first term of netball with the new intake of 6th Form girls, and rugby players able to keep involved playing at the local club, Salisbury RFC. Local businesses have also kept up their support despite the difficult times - Fawcetts, Blue Frontier, Girls Love Fit and Living with the Lions, along with the school's Old Wordsworthian Association. Brilliant to see such positivity and development all co-ordinated by the Director of Sport, Richard Demain-Griffiths. Well done all.

BWS 2020 12 End of Term Sports Report

9 December 2020
Dear Parents/Guardians
Despite the global pandemic and the hurdles this has created throughout everyday life including sport, there has also been room for what we have called Covid opportunities. The lack of school fixtures and the reduced pressure to organise teams and logistics each week has meant we have been able to focus our attention in additional areas. This has enabled us to create more opportunities for our students, developing those that already exist and establishing some new ones. It’s been a frustrating term in some regards, but also thoroughly rewarding and different. Throughout it all the students have been exemplary. We are very lucky to work with such a resilient, diligent and hard-working group.

As well as our students I would like to say a huge thank you to the staff who have ensured we have been able to continue relatively unchanged in terms of delivery. They have adapted to the Covid restrictions and new school timetable to ensure we are still able to deliver a wide breadth of activity from Year 7 to Sixth Form on a participation to a performance level.
Please use the school’s sports website for all our training and fixture details. We hope for these to be merged with the whole school calendar by the New Year:
Bishop Wordsworth's School | Sports Home (bws-school.org.uk)

Cricket (https://www.instagram.com/p/CHxxs0mDR_6/)
Mr Roca (new this academic year) has big plans for school cricket. Our intention, like our other sports is that we can compete with the best. It won’t happen overnight, but already the interest has been huge with morning net sessions and lunchtime indoor cricket. We really look forward to seeing how we can continue to develop as we move into the summer and beyond. It has been great to see OW M Kantolinna in coaching and the sports hall nets and bowling machine being put to good use with both the boys and girls working on their skills.
In order to fulfil our ambitions we are starting to look at reinstalling external cricket nets on the school site in No.11. We previously had nets, but they went a long time ago. Unfortunately, when we most need them in the summer there will be exams in the hall and so one of our sports projects is to install an external facility for use all year round. Please read more below.

Netball
Mr Hole is not one to do things half-heartedly and has thrown himself into the netball, already establishing a link with Team Bath (https://www.teambath.com/2020/10/23/bishop-wordsworths-netball-academy-development-centre/). The girls have been training hard, and although frustrating I know this time has been appreciated in terms of preparation for what is to come. Much like the rugby we hope to have some fixtures in the new year and we all look forward to finally seeing the girls in action. An additional thanks to M Hole who has given her own time to offer coaching and advice to our girls, always a privilege to have an international athlete working with our own.

Polo (https://www.instagram.com/p/CHD8PSqHMwg/)
The Bate brothers in Year 7, Year 10 and Year 12, along with W Dubois all took up Polo during the summer lockdown as a new activity to learn. They have since become proficient enough to play in a match which Druids Lodge were kindly able to arrange and host along with a taster day for a number of other students. Although not a usual state school sport we hope to be able to develop our relations with Druids and offer more opportunity and school matches in the future. Maybe we can hit the dizzy heights once seen when OW E Ormerod was amongst us and we played and beat an Eton side containing a couple of Princes!

PE & Games
We’re excited to welcome A level back this coming academic year, with Mr Roca and Mr Oldham taking a combined lead on academic PE as a whole, I know like our GCSE of recent years it will be a huge hit in terms of popularity and results. Combining well with almost anything, please see below as we look to reconnect with our past students to see where their A levels including PE has taken them so far beyond BWS.

Beyond BWS & A-level PE
I wrote in the summer, with regards to our commitment, about a more holistic assessment of our students using fitness and physical competency testing as well as our processes. This was to be used in conjunction with an app developed by Mr Duckett and accessed via MS Teams which in turn will produce individualised visual reports. We are still piecing this together, but hope by parents’ evenings to have these in place to show you how your child is getting on and their strengths and weaknesses across the board, not just their ability in a given activity.
In line with this more holistic approach we continue to develop our games provision with Mr Roca introducing Sports Education in Year 10 games (https://www.instagram.com/p/CIEOPRpHvm5/) and Mr Oldham taking the lead on our physical competency parkour (https://www.instagram.com/p/CH-ASppnRYJ/). Both activities give the students ownership over their own sporting journey and look to develop the whole person, not just their skills in a given activity. On top of this I have heard reports Mr Denham is looking into a possible Aussie Rules match for our Y11 students taking part in university games on a Friday.
As well as our usual in-school provision, squash has continued with Paul Chaplin at Chafyn Grove and our sixth form students have been able to access Salisbury Tennis Club on a Wednesday during games. With Alex Taylor from Girls Love Fit delivering a very popular fusion of yoga and pilates (https://www.instagram.com/p/CFwEdQ5H0Ks/) on Tuesday after school attended by upwards of 50 students on occasion.

Rugby
Before the latest lockdown we had hoped to trial a fixture against Dauntsey’s, it would have been our one and only of the term, but we were thwarted in our efforts. Thankfully for the seniors they have been able to play in the community at Salisbury RFC, competing in a couple of ready 4 rugby tournaments (https://www.instagram.com/p/CFoqP_AnCgX/). The Sports Leader group accompanied by the senior rugby players also ran a successful Saturday block for the other years. Given the restrictions it was great to see so many BWS students competing at Britford and the hunger for competitive weekend sport (https://www.instagram.com/p/CGKXRCmnTmo/). This is something I hope we can see more of as we move into the new year with a number of 15s & 7s fixtures lined up for the seniors in particular. If we can and there is opportunity we will look for similar with the lower years although the majority will look to focus on football in the new term.
A group who have come on masses is the girls 7s squad who have trained weekly and in the last couple of weeks have got to the point where we’re able to play competitive contact mini games in training. A great effort from them given all bar two were complete novices in September. (https://www.instagram.com/p/CFl0OreHuGP/ )

Support, Sponsors, Sports Projects
A huge thanks to our supporters this year who have all financially contributed to school sport. Although unable to compete so far, your help is much appreciated, offsetting some of the costs incurred eg coach travel, referees and medical cover. Others such as the OWA have made a direct contribution to a facility, replacing our rugby posts and purchasing a new set of protectors.
Fawcetts: Home - Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers in Salisbury (fawcetts.co.uk)
Blue Frontier: Web Design, Development & Digital Marketing | UK Agency (bluefrontier.co.uk)
Girls Love Fit: Home - Girls Love Fit
Living with the Lions: LWTL Sports Tours | Rugby, Cricket, Golf, School & Hospitality Packages (livingwiththelions.co.uk)
OWA: Old Wordsworthians Association

My hope is that we can call upon other supporters, governing bodies, the lottery, our parents, and OWs as we aim to kick start three exciting sports projects that are currently in their infancy:
1. Installation of external cricket nets on No.11
2. Installation of athletics training area at Britford
3. Redevelopment/Expansion of current pavilion at Britford
Should you have any interest in supporting one of the above or know someone/a company who might be, please do get in touch. Likewise, if you know anyone who may be able to offer quotes on the above projects. We have started the process, but we are very much in the early stages.

Like the people who support us, we are also big on supporting our own and please take a look at and support these OWs who have been in touch with us with new ventures this term:
Sands United FC Salisbury: Sands United FC Salisbury (@sufcsalisbury) • Instagram photos and videos
Nole Pizza: nole sourdough pizza – nole – sourdough pizza + beer room (nolepizza.co.uk)
Lah Koh: LAH KOH - Home - Asian Cuisine and Coffee in Salisbury

Tour
Our planned tour to South Africa this coming summer, although in the balance, is still currently on. All we can do is watch developments and hope for increased positive news as we move into the New Year where towards the end of January we will make an ultimate decision with the parents of the boys involved. Should it not take place we will look to move it to 2022, with a tour in 2023 for the current Year 9 & Year 10 still firmly in my mind.

The Future
Seemingly uncertain for most of 2020, as we end the year and enter the next our hope is that there is some certainty and the world continues to move in a positive direction. One thing for certain is we will continue to deliver and offer as wide a breadth of opportunity to our students as possible with opportunity for all. Please continue your support and to follow us on our various twitter outlets and Instagram:
Official BWS Sport Page (@bwssport) • Instagram photos and videos

Have a great Christmas break and we look forward to seeing everyone back in a better world come 2021.
Best wishes
Mr R Demain-Griffiths
Director of Sport