It has been a very busy and successful term for PE and extracurricular sport at Vita et Pax!
PE and Sport
The Children in Nursery and Reception have been enjoying their gymnastics lessons in which they have been learning how to hold different body shapes and balances as well as travelling in different ways. They have loved transferring what they have learnt onto the apparatus and wall bars. The children have also been practising rolling and aiming, as well as throwing, bouncing, and catching with bean bags and different sized balls.
Class 1 and 2 have also been travelling, using body shapes and balances in their gymnastics classes, and have been investigating ways of linking them into sequences both on the floor and the apparatus. Outside, the children have been learning different ways of travelling with a ball. They have enjoyed the mini-games and have started to think carefully about their game play.
Swimming lessons are back for years 3 and 4 which is great news, and the children have been enjoying their time in the pool. In games, they have been playing netball and hockey. They have been developing their passing and attacking skills to support them when defending play as well as shooting goals.
Year 5 and 6 played tennis in the first half-term whilst they weather was still being kind to us! They worked hard to improve their forehand and positioning on the court, and this led to some nice rallies. In games lessons they have also played football, hockey, and netball. They have been focussing on spacing and getting free, as well as attacking, defending and shooting skills.
Sporting Achievements
Cross Country
In October, 10 children from years 5&6 competed in the Enfield Borough cross country championships. It was a lovely afternoon, albeit a challenging hilly course, however the children all ran well. The girls’ team did brilliantly and came 7th overall out of 19 schools.
Football
The football team played their first round of league matches at Southgate school. The team played brilliantly in both matches and came out with a well-deserved draw against St Paul’s, and after holding a very strong St Andrew’s team 0-0 at half-time, they unfortunately went on to lose 3-0.
Mr Metherell said “I’m hugely proud of our team as they gave their all in both matches and did themselves and our school proud. I’d also like to give a special mention to Ben ‘the cat’ who was the person of the match in both matches, Ben’s individual performances and heroics between the sticks was fantastic and Zayn who was the youngest player on the day and was a real asset to the team and played very well.”
Netball
The netball team also played their first two Enfield league matches in October. After a very close game against Merryhills the team lost 1-2, however they went on to win 4-2 against Eversley in their next match. They played brilliantly as a team and there were some fantastic performances. The 2 players of the match were Elsie for her fantastic shooting, and Prapti for some amazing defending. Well done to all the players!
Mini London Marathon
On the last day before half-term the whole school took part in the Mini London Marathon. We went over to the Bramley road field to complete all or part of the 2.6 mile route. This event was made even more exciting as the children and staff ran or walked wearing fancy dress! A fun afternoon was had by all, and most of the older children (and some younger ones) were determined to complete the whole course! Congratulations to all those who did and thank you to the parents who also took part. Many thanks also to those who donated sponsorship money.
Gymnastics
The Vita gymnastics team have had an amazing term!
On the 13th November the girls attended the 2021 IAPS gymnastics competition. It was held in Lady Elleonor Holles School with over 500 children competing. We entered the Under 11 novice and placed 1st out of 7 schools in our category. We also entered the Under 9 Novice category where the girls came 6th out of 9 schools. Individually Ella placed 1st and Erin 3rd out of 35 children in the Under 11 group. In the Under 9s Sukie placed 5th in the floor routine and 13th respectively out of 45 children.
A few weeks later Vita et Pax also entered 4 groups into the Enfield Gymnastics Festival. In the KS1 competition, the children achieved the 3 highest individual overall scores of the day out of 45 other competitors. What a fantastic achievement by our youngest gymnasts! In the year 3 and 4 competition, our team came in 3rd place, with our students scoring the second highest and fourth highest in their individual overall scores. The year 5 girls had some amazing vaults and routines and came in 13th place in a very large and tough competition.
Ella and Erin from year 6 came home with joint first place medals and the trophy in the individual open advanced competition. Their floor routines and vaults were exceptional! Well done girls. Many congratulations to all our wonderfully talented gymnasts.
