Physical Education
The teaching and learning of Physical Education is essential in the development of the whole child – academic, social, emotional, spiritual as well as physical. It provides the foundation for a healthy lifestyle, which each child can build on in later life.
High March seeks to instil a lifelong love of being active and to teach girls the importance of a healthy lifestyle for their physical and mental wellbeing. High March has an inclusive approach and lessons are geared to all pupils regardless of their ability.
High March encourages all pupils to participate in a broad programme of sport and physical activity which is positive and stimulating; this includes a variety of team and individual sports which help children to learn through challenge and competition.
The Physical Education curriculum includes netball, swimming, athletics, rounders, football, hockey, cricket, gymnastics and dance as well as outdoor adventure activities.
Netball is one of our most popular sports and we are extremely successful in our fixtures against a range of schools. We also compete in many local leagues, tournaments and larger national competitions and, in recent years, we have reached the IAPS finals on several occasions. In Years 4 to 6, we have a number of teams, thus giving as many girls as possible match experience and the opportunity to represent High March. Netball clubs are run after school for Years 3 to 6 and we select girls to attend a squad training session after school where more advanced tactics and skills are covered in preparation for fixtures. To ensure all girls have the opportunity to play competitively, we organise whole year group friendly fixtures and house tournaments.
All girls from Reception to Year 6 benefit from a weekly swimming session all year round in our modern, well-maintained 4-lane 20 metre swimming pool. There are separate swimming performance squads from Years 3 to 6, which run after school and have led to the recent success of the Year 4 girls winning the Division 10 Swimming League overall, the Year 6 squad winning the relay, as well as an individual freestyle winner (all in June 2022). Non-squad swimmers also benefit from this top class facility at Developmental Swimming and Free Swimming clubs, which run as part of our co-curricular programme. We also have an extensive programme of extra-curricular swimming lessons for our Nursery children and above.
Our sporting success is seen not only in the netball court and in our pool but also on the athletics track. In 2021 and 2022, at the National Schools Biathlon Championships regional event, our girls produced exceptional performances with a number qualifying for the national finals. In 2022 our U11 team was placed second overall nationally and our U9 girls third. In addition, we were thrilled to see one of our U11 pupils secure an individual placing.
Our comprehensive co-curricular programme broadens the girls’ sporting experiences still further, introducing them to a wide range of sports such as fencing, triathlon, tennis and squash.
