Sport
Your child will have the chance to explore many different sporting activities at Hurst Lodge
We’ve been successful in the ISA nationals in swimming, athletics, football, netball and judo. Our pupils include skiers, riders, traceurs, archers, ice hockey players, runners and more. You’ll even find people trying their hand at ultimate frisbee.
Sports we cover currently are cross country, rugby, football, netball, swimming and striking and fielding. We have specialist coaches who teach netball, football, rugby, swimming and strength & conditioning.
Real life is competitive, and so are our sports days. Competition does not have to be against each other, it can be celebrating a personal best.
On the other hand, if your child simply wants to try a new sport, we’ll do everything we can to encourage them.
“Phoenix Football Academy chose me to represent England for the Gothia Cup in Sweden this summer, which is really exciting. School has helped me with my fitness, running and training. I want to become a professional eventually.”
“This year I qualified for the British dressage regionals. I
love everything about it, but I’ve learned that some days won’t be perfect. Sometimes you’ll win and sometimes you won’t. It’s about understanding failure and how to come back from that.”
Swimming
At Hurst Lodge, we place great emphasis on learning to swim and developing lifelong aquatic skills for our children.
Our new learn to swim programme centres on the 'Swim England' award scheme. This pathway starts at Duckling level, with gaining confidence and having fun as the key features. Getting faces wet, blowing bubbles, jumping in, basic movements such as doggie paddle and push & glides are just a few of the skills developed at the early stages.
Our younger swimmers work through the four Duckling Levels and when they are ready, will attempt to gain 'my first swim'. This is the big moment when a child swims unaided for the first time.
Swimmers then progress onto the Water Skills Programme. Each of the six Water Skill Levels has 5 swimming requirements and 5 skill requirements. These all need to be mastered before moving to the next level. This means the child is learning a whole range of aquatic skills, as well as stroke work, all aimed at becoming efficient and confident when swimming.
Once at Water Skills 5 or 6 level, children are generally swimming at a very good standard, usually with at least 3 good strokes. Competing in school galas and other inter school competitions offer exciting challenges along the pathway.
We conclude our programme with four further awards called Challenge Bronze, Challenge Silver, Challenge Gold and finally, Honours. These awards range from swimming 400m using 2 different strokes (Bronze) through to completing 1000m using 4 different strokes in under 20 minutes (Honours).