The events of Thursday 30 June 2022 will always be viewed as a significant day in the history of both schools. Indeed, the inaugural joint school sports day was a superb example of the benefits of collaboration and a fine illustration of what can be achieved when both schools come together to share the same common purpose.

Over 1,200 athletes all participated in at least two events, ranging from traditional track and field, through to the wagon wheel roll and the community mile. The intention was to create a sports day that would appeal to all students, regardless of athletic ability and we were adamant that the day should be as inclusive as possible. Each participant would become part of a franchise team, created from the colours of the Houses across the schools, thus the Yellow Lions as an example, were made up of athletes from the Houses of Millar (Girls’ School) and Strouts (Boys’ School).

Every event was scored equally and each discipline contributed to the final result. As with many things at school, the relative success of an event is really only determined by the pupils themselves and we were delighted with the ambition and courage shown by all of the participants. Furthermore, each individual’s commitment to Sports Day was best illustrated by the fact there wasn’t a single empty lane in over 65 races on the track.

There were some fantastic results across the board from our students, including Eniola O who ran 11.80s in the Year 7 70m hurdles, Shammah S who completed the Year 8 300m in 44.3s. There was also Omi M in Year 10 who won the 100m in 12.2s and Sixth Former, Bella P who came first in the Year 12 High Jump by completing 1.45m!

And after six hours of competition, spanning over 130 events, the final standings were as follows:
1st THE RED FOXES (Sprules and Hendersons)
2nd THE BLUE SHARKS (Harold and Russells)
3rd THE YELLOW LIONS (Millar and Strouts)
4th THE GREEN DRAGONS (Gilliland and Joblings)
5th THE PURPLE PANTHERS (Gillett and Meadows)
6th THE ORANGE GRIFFINS (Powell and Calverts)

The schools would like to extend their gratitude to all of the staff who played an active role on the day, whether that be via the officiating of an event or by performing a vital role in the supervision of the pupils. As one might imagine, many months have been spent planning and organising an event of this magnitude.

Well done to all who participated!