Children develop their gameplay at Pocklington's netball coaching session

Pocklington School shared its facilities and resources as part of its Schools Outreach Programme when the Head of Netball and Co-curriculum hosted a netball coaching session for 8 to 11-year-olds from local primary schools.

Thirteen children from local primary schools honed their netball skills when they joined a netball coaching session at Pocklington School recently.

Eight to 11-year-olds were invited to a skills-driven morning, hosted by Pocklington School's Head of Netball and Co-curriculum, Lucy Hornby. Three Sixth Form 1st Team netball players led the session: Georgie Taylor (Music Scholar), Vivi Mayman (Sports Leader) and Emily Phillips (Sports Leader).

The children were guided through a series of sporting drills, which focussed on key elements of gameplay including ball skills, footwork, attack, defence and rules of the game. After several team exercises, the youngsters enjoyed some match play, where they put their newly refined skills into practice. The Sixth Form leaders concluded the session by thanking all the children for working so hard (and on such a cold morning!) and awarded certificates of merit.

Lucy Hornby said: "The aim of the morning was to provide an exciting session for the children to develop their netball game. Our Sixth Form students enjoyed the opportunity to plan and lead the session for the children and in doing so, we hoped this would provide our local primary school children with accessible sporting role models.

“The children did their respective schools proud, and we were hugely impressed with their love of being active as well as learning new skills, despite the wind and rain!”

The schools taking part were: Bishop Wilton C of E Primary School, Mount Pleasant C of E Junior School, St Martins C of E Primary School and Warter C of E Primary School.

Pocklington School offers a Sports Scholars programme which is designed to nurture and support the sportsmen and women of the future. The sports scholars receive a range of support and the programme is aimed at students entering into Year 9 or 12. Please visit the school website for further information.