Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Schools Festival

In recognition of our participation and success within sport in Islington, the school was nominated by the Islington Schools PE and Sports Team to attend a day at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Leyton, with the children participating in Hockey and Tennis Lessons.After a journey of around an hour, on over ground, bus and foot, we arrived at the very impressive looking Hockey and Tennis centre. The format for the day saw the children taking part in a Hockey session in the morning and Tennis in the afternoon.The Hockey session was conducted on a full size Hockey pitch and here the children were taught skills, in dribbling, passing and shooting.

They then went into small sized games, where the children had loads of fun, apart from Han who unfortunately picked up a thick lip courtesy of Cameron’s stick, all accidental of course. The rest of the session went injury free, despite Patrick’s best attempts of swinging like Rory McIlroy! The children then met up with all the other schools for lunch before they moved onto the Tennis. We had time very quickly to go onto the actual pitch England’s Hockey team play on, and take some pictures.

With dark clouds gathering we were very happy to hear the session would take place indoors, on the very impressive tennis courts the centre has. Again the children learnt new skills and then played matches against each other. The girls Ella, Margot, Natalia, Olivia and Thora, discovered a new liking for the sport, whilst the boys who also included Archie, Cameron and Louis indulged in some excellent rallies, with each other.Once the session ended it was time to head of home, and again it looked as if the gods were smiling on us as all the terrible rain, thunder and lightning had disappeared and we enjoyed a nice journey home with the children reflecting on what they had learnt and more importantly the amount of enjoyment they had. The children were impeccably behaved and pleasure to take out for the day, so well done to all of them.

All action Archie.

Han and Cameron pre injury!

Patrick teeing up!

A very focused Louis.