ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE Passionate about sport Director of sport Peta Girdwood shares the breadth of sporting opportunities that await pupils at The Perse School, Cambridge O f its four key values, ‘breadth and balance’ is where The Perse School’s sporting passion really lies. “It’s woven throughout our PE, games
and extracurricular programme, with a huge range of opportunities available to every pupil across lunchtimes, after school and as part of the curriculum plan,” enthuses director of sport Peta Girdwood. “It really is part of our daily occurrence here at the school, and we’re very inclusive in that sense,” she continues. “We offer PE lessons from year 7 all the way up to year 11, as well as GCSE PE, which we started this year due to increasing demand and support. Meanwhile, the games programme enables pupils to spend time refining a sport and representing the school. In fact, every child in years 7 and 8 has represented the school in some way this year, which is absolutely amazing.” The Perse’s games programme is also particularly wide-ranging, with 15 or 16 different activities available to take part in by the time pupils reach sixth form, meaning there’s something for everyone. That goes for the extracurricular offerings too, with a plethora of key sports and outdoor pursuits on the agenda. “For me, the extracurricular side is a chance for students to really engage in activities that help develop their confidence and social connections. They get to spend longer on one activity in order to develop and hone specific skills – through an element of performance as well,” Peta explains. A wealth of opportunity The strength of support for sports at The Perse School is clearly demonstrated by the level of investment it has made in facilities and staffing, with a brand-new sports centre having been unveiled for the current school year, regeneration of It teaches teamwork and collaboration skills, through working together to achieve end goals
LIVING FOR THE GAME The Perse embeds a deep love for sports in students’ lives, so the impact goes further than the pitch
existing facilities, extensive playing fields in Abington and a 17-strong departmental team, plus a support network of 30 staff from other academic subject areas. The range of opportunities available to pupils is equally vast, with traditional school-level sports such as netball, rugby, hockey, tennis, cricket, athletics and cross- country running sitting alongside rowing, badminton and basketball. Swimming now forms part of the PE curriculum, as well as athletic development. “On top of that, we’ve got some more niche sports such as target rifle shooting and climbing. Then, as our pupils get older, we introduce dance, fitness and yoga too,” continues Peta. “We also run two athlete programmes – one talent programme for pupils in the middle school and also a junior academy for those in the lower school. These are for individuals who are particularly passionate about sports and want to develop stronger foundations, which will put them in the best possible position when they go out to represent their sport. “These programmes include gym sessions and mentoring with our assistant director of sport, for example. They form a well-rounded package for supporting pupils in the next stages of their development as sportsmen and women.”
Foundations for success The fruits of The Perse School’s approach and investment in facilities can be seen in its sporting successes, including recent appearances in national finals for the
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