A ‘ new normal ’ ( to use a phrase which rapidly became a cliché of the pandemic ) was established . In the PE department , this meant the washing machine was on overtime keeping bibs hygienically clean and the phrase ‘ sanitising the netballs ’ entered the vocabulary . As a result , even during the tightened restrictions of the November lockdown , when club sport stopped , school sport continued and lit up the lives of students .
The department sought to come up with an amazing programme that enabled students to feel like they were still able to participate in competitive sport through internal tournaments which created the feel of fixtures , just without the other schools . For the hockey tournaments , the realistic nature of match days was recreated with hot chocolate , match teas on occasion , and weekly votes for Player of the Match , Demon Defender , Awesome Attacker and One to Watch .
When January 2021 saw a last-minute return to distance learning , the PE department released a new programme for Lockdown 3.0 . The end of the Lent term saw students back on campus and the Summer term brought the welcome return of fixtures . Students were incredibly excited about the return to normality
– and so were staff ! The first set of fixtures took place on Saturday 24 April , with six cricket teams competing against Sutton Valence . James Emmitt , the Director of Sport , loved umpiring in the sunshine watching the pupils playing cricket with enormous smiles on their faces . Even the coach journey ( face masks included ) brought back great memories . The PE department is delighted to be able to run a handful of proper team reports for some of the summer sports . It is sad not to be able to do the same for our wonderful teams in rugby , netball , hockey , football , badminton , basketball , swimming and all the rest , but summer sports were worst affected by Covid-19 last academic year , so it was good to see them climbing back into the coaches once again . Let ’ s hope everyone can do the same in the next academic year .
Sarah Eversfield
HOCKEY
Taking advantage of the hockey pitches enabled Upper Sixth leavers to have an entertaining end to Sevenoaks sport . Led by Mrs Nicholson , we took part in mixed hockey activities during games time , as a small , yet tight group of players . The lack of competitive matches due to Covid restrictions was
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