Girls at Roedean School, Brighton, enjoy many sports opportunities and receive impressive tuition to help them achieve their sporting ambitions. While some aspire to represent their nations at the Olympic level, others enjoy playing sports as recreational activities. Either way, students develop their sporting confidence and skill, laying the foundation to excel in sports for years to come.
Roedean School’s Development Programme
All students partake in Roedean School’s development programme. This student-centred programme sees girls follow a rotation of activities in their single physical education (PE) lessons. These activities include gymnastics, athletics, swimming, tennis, and strength and conditioning.
Meanwhile, girls taking double PE lessons focus on one sport per term. They practise hockey during the autumn term, netball during the spring term, and cricket during the summer term.
There are a host of weekly fixtures providing opportunities for competitive spirit. Roedean also offers a co-curricular programme full of squad practices and 21 activities to try. These activities range from yoga, golf, and horse riding to karate, fencing, tennis, and gymnastics.
Competitive Sports at Roedean School
Roedean girls compete in tournaments across 14 sports. This variety of sports is a testament to the comprehensive range of sports that girls practise at the School. Girls participate in around 600 fixtures each year, achieving outstanding results.
As Roedean’s Director of Sport Kate Wakeling emphasises, Roedean has always had a “strong heritage” on the sports scene. In the late 1800s, Roedean’s founders, the Lawrence sisters, positioned sports pitches at the front of the School. The aim was to ensure that anyone passing could see women playing sports.
Since then, Roedean has achieved numerous sporting milestones. These milestones span from hosting the Lacrosse World Cup against the U.S. in 1951 to being the school with the most netball courts in Sussex today.
Sport In Roedean School’s Community
Training and fixtures aside, Roedean sports create a sense of fun and community amongst girls. The School gets involved in Race for Life and hosts several community sports events, including:
- House netball and hockey matches.
- Staff-versus-student netball and hockey fixtures.
- Family rounders.
- Parents’ and daughters’ tennis.
- Old Roedeanian sea swimming.
These events encourage girls to make memories as they enjoy valuable time with their families, friends, and the wider Roedean community.
Hockey Experience Day With Olympic Gold Medallist Helen Richardson-Walsh
Roedean School hosted one of its recent community sports events in November 2023. The School held a Hockey Experience Day with Roedean’s Sports Ambassador Helen Richardson-Walsh, who won Gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics and has a strong connection with the School.
50 Year 5 and 6 students joined Roedean’s Sports Scholars for the Experience Day. They practised strength and conditioning and a series of indoor hockey skills. They also watched a video analysis of the Rio Olympic final in which Richardson-Walsh won her gold medal.
The girls then took to Roedean’s Astro hockey field to develop their skills. Roedean staff held practice sessions while Richardson-Walsh moved between groups of students, offering tips and support. These sessions included a session specifically for goalkeepers.
Richardson-Walsh also gave a presentation about her experiences in the sports world. She inspired the girls by explaining the determination and resilience she needed to reach her goals in her athletic journey. She even passed her Olympic medals around for the girls to look at.
The girls finished the day by playing mini-matches and putting their new skills into practice.
Roedean School’s Exceptional Physical Education Department
Roedean School’s exceptional PE department encourages girls to participate in a variety of sports. As such, girls uncover passions for new sports, exceed their personal bests in multiple physical activities, and bond with their peers along the way.
Students learn that partaking in sports doesn’t only benefit their physical health. They learn about the psychological and social benefits of physical activity and how they can enjoy these benefits.
Students also develop other essential skills in their PE education at Roedean. They build teamwork, time-management, and goal-setting skills, not to mention confidence, self-awareness, self-discipline, and motivation.
Specialist teachers and coaches oversee Roedean’s broad sports programme, which offers individual support for each student while promoting a sense of competition. By extension, Roedean girls have a track record of achieving impressive results when playing against other schools.
Girls take PE lessons in groups of nine with one teacher. These small teaching groups allow each student to receive the level of tuition they need to flourish. They train using Roedean’s impressive sports facilities, which include a floodlit hockey pitch, and 12 netball and tennis courts.
Learn more about sports at Roedean School.
About Roedean School
Roedean School is a prestigious day and boarding school for girls aged 11-18. State-of-the-art facilities fill a 45-acre campus, where girls take future-facing lessons both in and out of the classroom. Staff throughout the School empower students to achieve their academic best while thriving in creative, sporting, and co-curricular pursuits. As a result, girls unlock their passion for and potential in — an array of subjects and activities.