As we reach the end of the Christmas term, Mr Hanley and Mrs Pullen give us their highlights and team news.
Football
Since the writing of the half term summary we have now completed the football season, bringing to an end a pretty successful season across all year groups.
In November, we entered the Lancing College Prep Schools football tournament with the U10s and U11s. Both teams had an excellent day with the U10s losing out narrowly in the quarter finals to an U11 team that went deep into the tournament. The U11s did excellently to finish runner-up in the trophy final, losing with virtually the final kick of the game. It was quite a tough season for the U11A team but they never gave up and for them to finish runner-up and walk away with a trophy each was a really pleasing end to the season and was thoroughly deserved after all their hard work and perseverance. We also managed to squeeze in some extra fixtures with Oakwood and Windlesham in the lower part of the school, but the final big block was against Cottesmore, which was a very competitive fixture day with many good results. Hopefully a school to continue playing in the future as we’re always looking for teams that can test and compete well against our teams.
The final act of the football season was the awarding of colours to some of the boys in the 1st team for their efforts this year. It is always a difficult process as so many of our pupils give their all and play important parts in the side, but colours this year were awarded to the captain Tommy N, Rafferty M, Johnny K, Noah C and Miguel A M.
Rugby
The rugby season has begun well with some really pleasing results, but more importantly performances. The start of the season can often be tricky for Westbourne House teams as we are often playing against teams who are already seven or eight weeks into their season. Despite this we have to try to hit the ground running!
At the top end of the school we have had a real balance of fixtures; in some matches we have simply been too strong, but in others, we have played schools with considerably more boys than we have and these have proved a very tough test. The U13s headed over to the IAPS rugby tournament at Brighton College where we played some really good rugby in what were truly terrible conditions. The games were short and at times we just lacked the quality of execution that is so important in tournament sport. This resulted in us losing one game that we shouldn’t have, which, had we won, would have resulted in the team qualifying for the final. We ended up losing to a strong Great Walstead team in the 5/6 playoff. Despite the weather, it was a good day's rugby. The U12 and U11 squads have been hit hard by injury in the first part of their season, but both have made good progress. With plenty of matches after Christmas, the coaches look forward to having fully fit squads to turn around some of their fortunes so far. The U10 squad have made a really good start to the season. The high points of the season for this group were the strong wins against a good Cranleigh squad. The U9s have made a really pleasing start to life in contact rugby with really close matches with Cranleigh and Highfield and a win over Seaford College. The U8 season is up and running also but with cancelled fixtures, we have only managed one match. This happened to be a brilliant block fixture with Cranleigh where all three Westbourne teams lost by just one try!
This rugby season has also seen the introduction of tag rugby in the more senior parts of the school. We have had matches against St Christopher's School and Highfield with children from Years 5-8 involved and we look forward to more matches after Christmas.
Mr Forsyth has awarded four sets of colours at the half way stage to the joint 1st team captains Johnny K and Walter d L and also to Hugh F and Rafferty M.
Netball
Since half term the U8s competed in a 5-a-side netball festival at Cranleigh, enjoyed a friendly mixed 4-a-side festival with PGS and travelled to Oakwood for their final fixture of the term and came away with 1 win and 1 loss. During their games lessons they started working on their hockey skills ready for next term.
The U9s had a busy second half of term. They started off with their 5-a-side U9 festival and all played extremely well. The Red team won all three of their matches, the Black team won 1, drew 1 and lost 1 and the Grey team won 1 and lost 2. The white team had a couple of very close games and were only 1 goal away from a draw in 2 out of their 3 matches. The U9s had a successful fixture with Seaford college winning 2 out of 3 of the matches. They also played Oakwood both home and away and won half of their matches over both days. They will be testing out their hockey skills next term.
The U10s had a tough second half of term. They played 4 fixtures and competed in the Westbourne House U10 netball tournament. The A team narrowly missed out on a place in the final. The match went down to a golden goal but unfortunately the opposition scored first. The U10C team finished their season with a close final match and fought hard for their well deserved win.
The U11s played one netball match against Highfield as a warm up for next term. All three teams played well. The A team lost by only a couple of goals and the B and C teams both won. A very promising start to the season.
The U12A and B team both won their Highfield matches so we look forward to what could be a very exciting season for the U12s.
The U13A and B team showed excellent potential in their netball matches against Highfield with wins of 25-5 for the A team and 23-2 for the B team. The C team won their match 9-8. Another year group to watch out for next term!
Hockey
All of the U10s played one hockey match against Highfield in preparation for next term. The girls showed a great understanding of the game already and well done to the C team on their convincing 5-2 win.
The U11s have had a brilliant second half of term. The U11A team won two out of three of their fixtures and thoroughly enjoyed competing at the Bryanston hockey tournament. The U11Bs won three out of four of their fixtures and the U11C team won both of their fixtures.
The five senior hockey teams played their final matches of the term. They faced their toughest oppositions including Seaford and Cranleigh. The 1st team finished the season with three wins and three losses, the 2nd team won one, drew two and lost two, the 3rd and 4th team won one, drew one and lost two and the 5th team won one and lost three.
The U12A team travelled to Clifton College in Bristol for the straight final of the U12 IAPS hockey tournament. They were in a very tough group but finished the group stage matches with a win against Hurst. They were unfortunately knocked out of the bowl competition with a 1-0 loss against Danes Hill.
Mixed Sport
Cross Country
Westbourne House hosted its annual cross country event for Year 4-8 on Saturday 19th November. There were a total of 50 runners all ready and raring to go. Both the junior and senior race courses involved running around the school grounds and also around the lake that the school uses for kayaking. Click through for photos and full report.
Squash
We had our first squash match of the year against Winchester College. It’s hard to find squash matches at prep school level so we end up having to look at senior schools and we always end up being pretty well matched. It’s just nice to have a school that shares a passion for squash like we do! The senior squad of eight pupils all took part and we proved to be a bit too strong, particularly at the lower end of the team where we won our matches quite comfortably. The closest matches were certainly at numbers 1-4. Johnny K narrowly losing his match but it was certainly the best game of the afternoon and he was awarded player of the match. We won the match 7-1 and look forward to a few more matches next term.
Year 8 design a PE lesson
Year 8’s mission was to design a short PE lesson and deliver it to their peers, explaining each exercise, what the exercise was looking to develop and why it was relevant to their sport.
