PE Careers Activity Week

Our PE Careers Activity Week provided students with an exciting opportunity to explore a wide range of career pathways through a series of engaging guest speaker sessions and research sessions. Professionals from different industries visited throughout the week to share their experiences, discuss their career journeys, and offer practical advice about entering the world of work.

Each session allowed students to learn about the skills, qualifications, and personal qualities needed for success in various fields. Speakers spoke openly about the challenges they faced, how they overcame them, and the opportunities available within their industries. Students were able to ask questions, gain insights into day-to-day working life, and better understand how school subjects, like PE, connect to future careers.

On Monday, Lucy Day, a physiotherapist at Leicester City Women’s FC and former GB Judo spoke to a Year 11 GCSE group about her career pathway, key skills and qualities needed for a physiotherapist. Lucy started her career in the NHS before moving to Leicester Tigers RFC. Lucy talked about the challenges of juggling her studies from GCSE to degree level with competing nationally in Judo. She gave the girls honest advice about picking subjects that they enjoy, being organised and asking for help when it is needed. 

On Tuesday, Catherine Elbourn, founder of Tackling Womenhood, a personal trainer and podcaster presented to both Year 11 GCSE classes and Emily Sheridan Women’s health specialist and wellbeing coach and personal trainer gave an insight to her career to a Year 10 GCSE group, and both our Year 12 and 13 A Level classes. Catherine spoke about how her initial interests in fitness and wellbeing have taken her on all sorts of different career paths. She said that when she looks back now she would have never imagined that she would be where she is today. Catherine gave valuable insights into the fitness industry, the highs and the lows as well as advice on the dos and the don’ts! She spoke passionately about making sure that you love what you do, and if you don’t, then you have the power to change it. 

Emily talked to the students about her journey from young ballerina and dancer to a Women’s health specialist and Personal Trainer. She gave lots of insight into the challenges of being a young female in the dance world and the competitive nature of her initially chosen career. Emily spoke honestly about taking calculated risks to do what you enjoy and building your future around your interests and passions. She told the students that her careers have gone from heavily active, to very sedentary to very active again and that being and promoting outdoor exercise has given her a real sense of purpose. 

On Thursday, Carrie Barfoot, a facilities and investment officer for Essex County FA came to talk to a Year 10 GCSE class about how her sporting career began as elite gymnast and European jiu-jitsu champion. She then went on to explain a variety of jobs in sport which she has had, from running her own gymnastics club to her current role for the FA. 

Additionally, Josh Smith, a professional football referee gave a really interesting presentation about life as a football referee to the Year 13 A Level class. Some brilliant questions from the students about VAR, what his typical week entails to prepare him for the upcoming match and reflections after, how much fitness training and testing is involved and how difficult it is to make decisions and control the game at such a high level. He also focused on all the uses of technology within his role, e.g. GPS trackers, heart rate monitors, VAR, dietician monitoring apps, analysis tools for after the game, all directly linking to the specification.

On Friday, Tara Hughes a NHS hospital based physiotherapist gave an insight to how many roles within physiotherapy there actually are! She is a specialist in neurological physiotherapy and major trauma and explained what her day to day role involves. She honestly discussed the challenges and successes of the job and addressed common misconceptions about working in the NHS.

Also we welcomed back Rachel Yankey OBE Former England & Arsenal footballer who now runs her own foundation for disadvantaged girls in football. Rachel attended our Sports Awards Evening in July 2024 and it was a pleasure to hear about her career once again. Rachel spoke about the challenges she had early on as a young girl trying to play a part in a male dominated football world. She spoke about the courage and commitment of the adults around her who fought for her to be able to play, and how that has helped to shape her determination to support young girls to be more physically active and to follow their dreams. Her key message was one of resilience and modesty. 

A key message lots of the presenters spoke about was the importance of doing work experience to gain valuable insight to the job and make you stand out in competitive careers, showing genuine interest in that role. They also said the following qualities are key in employment; communication, teamwork, problem-solving, creativity, digital skills, time management and resilience.

Throughout the week, all Key Stage 3 students (Year 7-9) participated in a lesson looking at sporting careers e.g. dance choreographer, sports development officer, commentator, coach, firefighter, physiotherapist and stunt performer. They then either planned a short presentation to talk to their peers about a sporting career or created a poster about a sporting career that has interested them the most. We had a huge mixture of presentations and posters which was amazing on a huge range of researched careers e.g. yoga teacher, jockey, sports psychologist, sports journalist, sports data analyst! The students got to work on their oracy and presentational skills; we just wish we had enough time to listen to them all! 

The week encouraged students to think about their own aspirations. Hearing real-life stories helped them appreciate the many possible routes into employment, including university, apprenticeships, and vocational training. The interactive nature of the talks helped build confidence and curiosity about future possibilities.

Overall, PE Careers Week was a valuable and inspiring experience. The guest speakers helped broaden students’ perspectives and begin thinking more seriously about their future pathways. We  sincerely thank them for giving up their time to speak to our students, it was greatly appreciated.

---

Netball

U14 National School’s Netball Finals 4th place!!

Congratulations to the U14 netball team who were absolutely phenomenal on Saturday.

We started strong in the pool stages winning 16-7 to Brookfield Community School. We continued to dominate in our second match winning 10-1 to Dame Allans.

Our third match made us raise our game to secure a 9-6 win against St John’s Leatherhead. We increased our goal average during our fourth match against Prince William School winning 19-3. Our fifth match against Parkstone Grammar (who came second overall) was a goal for goal match where we unfortunately lost by 1 goal, 8-7.

Our sixth match against Bedford Grammar ended in a 10-8 win and our seventh match against Cheadle Hulme also ended in a 12-9 win. Our final pool game against Solihull School remained important as the top of the table was very mixed due to all teams losing a match, however we dug deep and secured a 14-12 win to secure our FIRST EVER NATIONAL SEMI FINAL SPOT!!

Coming second in our pool (with only goal average separating us from first place) meant we had the tougher of the semi finals against eventual winners, Silverdale. The girls fought non stop to come back from a larger goal difference at half time but unfortunately we ran out of time and lost 11-8.

We then went on to play in the third/fourth play offs where we started strong, dominating at half time. Unfortunately Streatham & Clapham came back with a vengeance meaning we sadly lost 13-10.

We are beyond proud of the team. They left it all out there and played the most incredible netball, showing outstanding team work, resilience and prowess.

We came away with the title of 4th best U14 netball team in the country which is our most successful netball achievement ever!!

Year 7

Recently, red team unfortunately lost a tight game 3-4 to Simon Balle and the blue team won 5-0! Well done to everyone who played, for some it was your first netball fixture!

Red team POTM Ariathne B and Blue team POTM Amelia D.

U15s

County Cup

Hats off to the brilliant U15s who just put on the most incredible display of netball against STAHS in the County Cup Final on 10th March.

Down to a straight seven and with players out of position, but my word you would not have known it!

Never dropping a quarter, tirelessly working every single step of the way. Immense circle defence, centre court hunting and providing for our superb shooters to seal the deal for U15 COUNTY CUP CHAMPIONS!!!!!

POM could not be separated – I could talk non stop about why each player deserves it. Beyond proud of the team work, resilience, sheer grit and determination from every single player.

County League

Congratulations to the U15s who won their penultimate match of the County League on 16th March against Chauncy. Great squad effort to maintain possession and get the ball to goal.

Final score 49-24. OPOM was Anna and CPOM was Lilianna.

On 24th March, the U15s played their final County League fixture against Mill Hill. A dominant display winning 40-16 in rather chilly and windy conditions! OPOM was Lilianna and CPOM was Lottie.

The result from this fixture makes it a clean sweep with the team remaining undefeated all season! This win also secures the treble with the girls winning the tournament, county league and county cup competitions! What a great way to end the season!

Year 8 – District Netball Tournament

The Year 8 Netball teams travelled to Broxbourne for the district finals of the Netball. A fire on the A10 meant we arrived over 40 minutes late, however upon arriving the girls got straight into it! The ‘A’ team were in the cup and won all but one of their games and finished runners up to Broxbourne School. The B team smashed all of their games and won the Shield! Well done girls, you were brilliant, and patient throughout today and I am proud of all of you!

Cricket

Well done to our Year 7 and 8s who took part in the ECB Chance to Play Indoor Cricket competition at Queenswood on Monday. The girls, most of whom have never played cricket before showed so much enthusiasm, resilience and determination. They made enormous progress from the start to the end of the tournament! Well done girls, we’re really proud of you!

Well done to our Years 9 and 10 who competed in the Chance to Play Indoor Cricket competition at Queenswood. This is the first match this season, and some of them have not played since last year. Our first match was against a strong Queenswood side, but the following match against Tring we got into our rhythm only loosing out by a few runs. In our last game against Bishops Stortford we ended up winning by 6 runs. Well done girls, great play and team work throughout the day!

Football

Goodness, what drama in the U16s County Cup Semi Final against a talented Ashlyns team on the 12th March! Presdales took a 2-0 lead with goals from Annabel G and Mia SR. They could have added more as they continued to look dangerous. The girls were playing with the wind behind them and keeping Ashlyns mostly pinned in their own half. However, Ashlyns pulled one back just before half time to make it 2-1 going into the break.

At half time, we had to change our GK due to an injury to Poppy W. Mia SR volunteered to go in but that changed our midfield balance. Keira G then got injured, Jess B got injured and Ava M was hobbling around! All of this whilst Ashlyns were starting to mount more and more pressure with the wind in their favour. This pressure eventually told and two shots from outside the area ended up in the back of our net to give Ashlyns a 3-2 lead. Their third goal was scored with barely a minute left on the clock…

Then came a moment of pure genius from Ava M, who had bravely soldiered on despite struggling for most of the second half. At the restart, after Ashlyns had just scored, Ava spotted their GK was well off her line. When the ball was laid back to her, Ava struck it beautifully from our side of the halfway and it sailed over the GK and into the net. It was a quite unbelievable moment! The game ended shortly afterwards at 3-3 with the prospect of penalties to follow.

Mia SR scored our first penalty and then saved Ashlyns first one to give Presdales the advantage! Presdales continued to dispatch our penalties with aplomb with Sienna R, Keira G, Ava M all stepping up. It then went to the 5th penalty which would secure victory for Presdales. Lily Mc stepped up and buried it into the corner sending the GK the wrong way. Scenes of jubilation followed!

This was probably one of the most tense matches I’ve been involved in during the last 6 years. From being 2-0 up to 3-2 behind with barely any time left, the multiple injuries and girls out on their feet, it showed the character of the team to get the win and reach the County Cup Final! So proud of all of you!

We will now face Sandringham in the County Final (date TBC). The whole team deserves Coaches PotM as it was a supreme team effort, however Mia SR and Ava M deserve special recognition for their outstanding contributions to the team. Well done girls!

Indoor Athletics

Congratulations to some of our wonderful Year 9 athletes that were invited to compete against the top placed schools from the 2025 County League.

Lots of superb performances against some of the highest ranked athletes in Herts. A very impressive team effort – Presdales placed 2nd in Herts!

Student News

Please see more student achievements in non-school sporting activities on our PE Facebook page. We have recently had student successes in Cheerleading, Hockey, Indoor Athletics and Swimming!