Girls A and B Teams Football Matches vs Cuffley - Thursday 12th March

The A team had a great game against Cuffley this afternoon, who were a sporting and determined opposition. From the kick-off, both teams displayed excellent passing movement and desire to attack. Fortunately for us, Enya found space through the middle and unleashed an excellent shot to put us 1-0 ahead. Some brilliant work in midfield from Hannah led to another fine goal from Enya just moments later, and her hat-trick was then completed with an exceptional strike from a tight angle from the right-hand side of the box in our next attack! At the other end of the pitch, Ava stood tall in goal and ensured that Cuffley's star striker shot wide of the post, keeping our clean sheet intact. Isla's fine run up the left wing saw her beat three (yes, three!) players in a row before she unleashed an inch-perfect cross to Grace in the box, who scored with a neat finish past the 'keeper. 

The second half saw us continue to dominate the possession. Ruby and Eloise made sure that each of Cuffley's attacks were thwarted with resolute defending, whilst Jersey's incredible ability to always find space meant that we continued to threaten going forwards. With just moments to spare, Enya once again found space in the box, and scored her fourth of the afternoon with a delightful curling shot. This deservedly crowned her Player of the Match, yet the whole team should be proud of their fine 5-0 victory. 

Meanwhile, the B team were busy playing their first match of the term, also against Cuffley. As with the A team fixture, this was played in great sporting spirit and featured two teams who were passionate to win! The first half saw the might of Izzy E in goal, who, only moments into her goalkeeping debut, faced a penalty. Fear not, though, as she bravely dived to the ground to make an excellent save which kept the game at 0-0! Just seconds later, fine work from Elise led to a brilliant ball falling to Kirsti's feet just inches from the goal. Kirsti did not disappoint the watching crowd as she rocketed her shot into the back of the net to give us the lead! As half-time approached, excellent defending from Gabby and Mia kept the Cuffley strike force at bay and, when she once again found herself in space in the box, Kirsti scored yet another great goal to give us a 2-0 lead going into the break. 

The second half saw the game open up, with both sides attempting many shots on goal. Fortunately for us, Izzy had her shooting boots on when she swapped positions, and scored not one, but two fine goals during a frantic five minute spell in midfield! Although Cuffley managed to pull three goals back during the half, fine finishes from both Anaya and Kirsti (completing her hat-trick and Player of the Match performance) gave us the victory, with a 6-3 final score. 

Both the A and B teams represented the school brilliantly this afternoon, and Miss Kropman is exceptionally proud of every player. Thank you to Mr Fennel for refereeing for us. We are all looking forward to our next games! 

Dance Club's performance in the Welwyn and Hatfield Schools' Dance Festival at The Hawthorne Theatre, Welwyn Garden City - Monday 9th March

After working exceptionally hard during their Friday morning rehearsals this term, Mrs Pollington's dance club wowed the audience at the Welwyn and Hatfield festival on Monday evening as they danced to Disney themes from throughout the ages, from Snow White through to Frozen! Each and every one of them performed brilliantly, had smiles on their faces throughout the dance and should be very proud of themselves. Well done to Mrs Pollington for such superb choreography - reporter Miss Kropman thoroughly enjoyed watching our talented performers on the evening, as did Miss Melchionno, too! 

Girls A Team Football Match vs Ladbrooke - Friday 14th March

The A team had an exceptionally close game against a strong, experienced Ladbrooke side this afternoon. As in our previous encounter last term, we were faced with some physical challenges and had to work hard to defend our goal. Ava was superb between the sticks, whilst Eloise and Hannah formed a super partnership at the back. The first half was a cagey affair, however, with neither team coming too close to finding the back of the net.

The game opened up a little more in the second half, and Melanie, Isla and Izzy combined brilliantly to feed the ball to Enya, who scored a sensational volley to put us in the lead. Unfortunately, however, this only lasted for two minutes, as Ladbrooke forced a corner and slotted home an equaliser. Despite us hitting the post twice and Grace seeing a shot just go wide, it was Ladbrooke who got the lucky break, with their striker powering through the middle of the pitch and firing in the winner with only a minute to spare. 

This was a match which we didn't deserve to lose, yet we should be proud of how hard we battled throughout whilst missing two players due to illness and holiday. Miss Kropman is looking forward to hopefully getting one more chance to play this team later in the season! Well done to all of the girls. Congratulations to Eloise for a player of the match performance and thank you to Mr Fennell for refereeing the game.  

Girls A Team Football Match vs The Wroxham - Friday 7th February

The A team had a challenging encounter with The Wroxham this afternoon, who, like us, were undefeated so far this year. Or, at least they were up until a few minutes ago! 

The Wroxham's strong reputation was evident in their playing style as they attacked our goal from the kick off. A fine early save from Ava and the exemplary defensive partnership of Eloise and Ruby meant that we survived the constant drives upon our box for the first ten minutes of the game. Meanwhile, Hannah, Melanie and Isla were battling hard in midfield to feed the ball up to Enya, who came agonisingly close to scoring with a fierce strike rebounding off the post. Just as the half came to a close, however, The Wroxham attacked the right wing and fired a shot past Ava to give them a 1-0 lead at the break. A spirited team talk from Miss Kropman and (the sadly injured) Grace led to a more determined mindset as the second half began. 

Playing her first game for the A team, Year 4 Izzy led by example as she took on player after player, often resulting in them pushing her to the ground! After one such challenge, the referee awarded us a free-kick on the edge of the box. Up stepped Enya, who equalised with a rocket of a shot that saw the ball soar into the top left-hand corner. A good candidate for goal of the season, thinks Miss Kropman! From this point onward, there was no stopping team BP, as we covered every blade of grass in our determination to find the winning goal. Every team member gave 100% effort and ensured that The Wroxham could not get near to scoring themselves. Jersey was an absolute star on the wing, taking on girls nearly twice her height and getting the better of them on a number of occasions. With her fine pass into the box, a mad scramble ensued, with Isla suddenly finding the ball at her feet and a clear sight of the goal with only a few minutes of the game left. Predictably, she remained calm and placed the most accurate of shots into the right-hand corner of the goal, leaving the goalkeeper with no chance of getting anywhere near the ball. Isla's very humble celebration wasn't quite matched by the watching supporters, whose cheers could quite possibly have been heard by all of the village! 

As the clocked ticked down, all of our girls defended resolutely and truly worked as a team. The final whistle was met with great happiness as we knew we had defeated a quality side. Player of the match should really be shared by the whole team, but I would like to make a special mention to Izzy, who was outstanding against girls two years older than her today, and also to Eloise, who was a rock in the heart of our defence. 

Well done, girls. Miss Kropman and Sports Coach Mr Fennell are very proud of you all!

Year 6 Indoor Athletics - Friday 17th January

Seventeen of our most athletic Year 6 children travelled to Stanborough this afternoon to compete in a Welwyn and Hatfield Sports Partnership indoor athletics event. Pitted against the strongest children in the district, both our boys and girls teams represented the school brilliantly to finish in 3rd place. Notable successes were Oliver, who came first in the javelin throw by a clear distance and Francesca and Georgia, who were winners of the 2 x 1 lap relay. Excitingly, our girls relay team of Georgia, Enya, Eva and Francesca also came in first place and were awarded medals as a result. Oliver and Francesca were selected as top performers of the afternoon and received a medal too! Miss Kropman greatly enjoyed taking such sporty, determined children to the competition and was very proud of them all. 

YEAR 5&6 GIRLS FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT WINNERS! - Wednesday 20th November

An incredibly talented team of Year 5 and 6 girls took part in the Mount Grace Primary tournament this afternoon and were crowned winners after six brilliant performances! The first game of the tournament saw us pitted against Oakmere's A team, who were a strong and experienced side. Our defensive pairing of Eloise and Ruby were made to work extremely hard in order to combat Oakmere's attacking players, whilst goalkeeper Ava made two strong saves early in the game. The battle in midfield was very even, but a superb breakaway run down the left wing from Enya created space in the middle for Grace, who fired a fine shot into the top right hand corner following an inch-perfect pass. 1-0 to Brookmans Park and a super start to the afternoon! Our second game was against Wroxham, who fielded a physical and talented team. Despite us having an even share of the possession, we only held out for a 0-0 draw thanks to some incredible goalkeeping from Ava. Our third match saw us gain confidence and momentum with a fine 2-0 victory against Oakmere's B team. Miss Kropman was delighted with Isla's fine run and goal and was blown away by Melanie's superb strike from outside the box which rocketed into the roof of the net!

In the fourth match of the tournament we faced Little Heath's A team, who were pacey and skilful. Once again, Grace was our star striker, firing us to a 1-0 victory with a fierce shot across the goalkeeper and almost breaking the net in the process! As we approached the final two games of the tournament, we began to sense something special was happening as we literally couldn't be scored against. The fifth game yet again did not disappoint the crowd of supporting parents, as Hannah and Jersey both scored well-taken goals in a 2-0 win against Little Heath's B team. So to the final game, and the prospect of Ladbrooke, a strong team with a frightening reputation of also being undefeated so far...

In what can only be described as an awesome game of football, our girls were made to battle for every ball. The whole team had to defend as if their lives depended on it, with Jersey, Hannah, Isla, Eloise and Ruby all braving tough challenges against a very physical team. Ava, meanwhile, made two brilliant diving saves to keep us at 0-0. Miss Kropman's nerves could barely take it as the referee indicated the final minute of the game. At this point, skipper Enya, who had been magnificent all afternoon, took it upon herself to cover every blade of grass as she sought out the ball. Upon winning it on the halfway line, Enya then drove towards the goal, beating three players on the way, until she reached the edge of the box. As the referee reached in his pocket for his full-time whistle, Enya unleashed a glorious shot towards the bottom left hand corner of the goal, which just beat the 'keeper to fire us to tournament victory with literally the last kick of the game! 

Miss Kropman and all supporting parents were incredibly proud of all of the girls. It is testament to the teamwork and strength throughout the squad that we didn't concede any goals this afternoon and that we had six different goal scorers ourselves. A huge congratulations, girls, each and every one of you truly deserves our trophy! 

BP teams are Kitted Out 

A massive thank you to Mr Lambourne for kindly sponsoring and purchasing our new Netball and Football Team Kits. They look absolutely amazing and the children cannot wait to represent the school wearing these. Also a big thank you to Mr Barry Neiman for his kind donation towards new Netball bibs and under armours for the team.

Year 6 Rugby World Cup Tournament 

On Friday 11th October, ten Year 6 children were chosen to take part in a competitive, Rugby World Cup themed tournament at Welwyn Garden City Rugby Club. We competed against a range of different schools and managed to win all of our groups games in convincing fashion, with the team playing some scintillating rugby at times. We went through to the Plate knockout stages and managed to win that against a good St Michaels team. In the final, we faced Oaklands as the heavens opened. The rain made the ball slippery and despite our best efforts, we lost 6-5. Well done to all the children who represented their school fantastically well. 

Year 6 Saracens Tag Rugby tournament at Welwyn Garden City Rugby Club - Wednesday 9th October

Year 6 were very excited to have been invited to take part in a district rugby tournament this afternoon which was hosted by Saracens RFC Foundation. The tournament was non-competitive and, therefore, scores were not allowed to be recorded. This reporter would, however, like to praise all four of our mixed teams for some excellent rugby playing and for doing exceptionally well throughout the afternoon. Tries were being regularly scored on all four pitches and we were continually praised for also demonstrating honest, sporting behaviour throughout. Congratulations to highest scorer Enya, who managed to achieve twelve tries (!) and also to Gabriel, who was scouted by the Saracens coaches as being someone who could play club rugby at a very high level. You all played and behaved brilliantly, Year 6, and were a joy to take to the tournament. Well done!

Year 4 + 5 Tag Rugby Tournaments

During the week commencing 30th September, ten Year 4 and ten Year 5 children were chosen to take part in a Rugby World Cup themed tournaments at Welwyn Garden City Rugby Club. Both teams played a number of matches against a range of different schools. Both teams completed fantastically and played some great rugby. Well done to all.

Year 5 Cross Country Competition 

On Friday 13th September, all of Year 5 made their way to Monkswalk School totake part in a cross country competition against a range of different schools. In the girls race, 4 of our girls finished in the top 5 meaning they have qualified to represent Monkswalk in the family partnership finals at Stanbrough Lakes. In the boys event, 2 of our boys finished within the top 12 to also qualify for the same event. As a school, we finished 2nd and all the children ran their hearts out whilst representing their school proudly. Congratulations to all and good luck to those children who qualified for the further competition.