A celebration of sport for girls at Leighton Park

The girls of Leighton Park ran, kicked, batted, bowled, shot, stretched and jumped their way through last week as the inaugural festival of girls’ sport sprang into action!

With almost twenty different activities planned between Monday 11th and Friday 15th June, female students, staff and parents were invited to get involved with a wide variety of sports, ranging from Gaelic Football to Parkour, Boxercise to Cricket.

The five-day celebration of sport, which builds on the national initiative to increase activity in young women through Sport England’s ‘This Girl Can’ campaign, began on Monday with a step challenge culminating in a 1K, 3K or 5K Race for Life. The race raised money for Cancer Research and brought together friends and family dressed in pink from across the Leighton Park community for a sprint, a wander and everything in between, around the beautiful 65-acre site.

For many, the highlight of the week was an inspirational visit from Svava Sigbersdottir, personal trainer to celebrities such as Amanda Holden and Nicole Sherzinger. Svava put each year group from Year 7 to Year 10 through their paces before inflicting her infamous ‘Viking Method’ on some of the staff, during their lunch break. ‘I can really feel my muscles today,’ laughed recovering English teacher Leana Mikula, ‘I wasn’t expecting to, as I work out pretty regularly, but I can definitely feel it.’ Svava’s training focusses on a positive approach to mental as well as physical health and she shared anecdotes from her past which illustrated her approach. Determination, having fun and doing your best, in spite of other people’s comments or criticisms, were the messages conveyed to her entranced audience during the Q&A sessions on the sunny Headmaster’s Lawn.

There were trips off site for daring feats of Parkour at Sol Joel Park in Reading and the London Schools’ Gaelic Football Tournament in Greenford on Tuesday. The tournament kicked off, quite literally, with a skills session in the morning where the girls learnt how to hand pass, run with the ball, defend and score. After lunch the team really began to find their feet and, building on their natural co-ordination and sporting instincts, rapidly developed a talent for the game. The girls were delighted to finish the tournament in second place. ‘I had a great time trying out Gaelic football,’ commented Emily (Year 10). ‘We were able to learn something new as well as apply skills from different sports in the tournament.’ Continuing to combine sport and travel, Wednesday saw a minibus full of enthusiastic footballers heading to Independent Schools’ Football Association (ISFA) Girls U15 7-a-side tournament at ACS Cobham School. Competing for the first time the team played valiantly against some strong sides from schools including Repton, Royal Russell, Millfield and ACS Cobham. They returned full of enthusiasm for the game, ‘Let’s hope it the first of many Girls’ Football Tournaments!’ commented Head of Football, Tim Green.

It was equally busy on the Park with the school hosting a Cricket Festival for Maiden Erlegh, Pangbourne College and The Holt as well as Leighton Park students on Tuesday. The Festival offered plenty of fortuitously timed training as we hosted our very first girls’ hardball cricket match against The Abbey on Thursday, which we won!

Looking forward to the autumn term, we were pleased to welcome the Nomads, a rugby squad famous for their touring, to coach a session of Girls’ Rugby on Thursday afternoon, offering an insight into the training commitments of those playing at professional level.

Jez Belas, Director of Sport, reflected on the success of the week: ‘When I sat with two of our Year 10 students, Nic and Ellie, at the beginning of this year and this was just an idea, I never thought it would be this great a week. It has truly inspired me and I hope it has inspired all the girls, even those who wouldn’t normally consider themselves to be sporty. The girls have been awesome this week. It’s been filled with staff and students playing top level sport, enjoying fun activities, taking part in fitness sessions, in depth talks, hosting other schools…the list goes on.’

Karen Gracie-Langrick, Deputy Head (Academic) added, ‘I loved watching all the girls playing cricket on the 1st XI pitch – and yes, in their whites! A truly inspirational and fantastically well coordinated week. I am definitely looking forward to a repeat next year!’