Sports

‘A broad and varied programme of Physical Education’

The Department

We offer opportunities for the elite performer and the social participant. Local fixtures provide us with strong competition and GDST Rallies offer further incentive for success and excellent performance in the principal sports. OHS teams are often finalists in County and National Tournaments and a number of our girls are selected each year for the county and some from that number will be chosen to represent the territory or country.

The Curriculum

A range of different activities are offered throughout the school. There is expertise in all team games especially hockey and netball as well as racquet sports, gymnastics and dance. Here is a list of all activities.

Netball (Year 7 – 11)
Hockey (Year 7 – 11)
Gymnastics (Year 7 – 9)
Dance – including street dance (Year 7 – 9)
Swimming – including lifesaving and personal survival (Year 7 – 11)
Trampolining (Year 9 – 13)
Badminton (Year 9 – 13)
Fitness/Health Related Exercise (Year 7 – 13)
Tennis (Year 7 – 13)
Athletics (Year 7 – 11)
Rounders (Year 7 – 11)
Squash (Year 11 – 13)
Real Tennis (Year 12 – 13)

* Bold text indicates OHS participation in GDST tournaments, rallies or workshops.

Year 7 girls have the opportunity to spend a week at Kilve court in Somerset, where they enjoy the challenge and adventure of outdoor pursuits including abseiling, canoeing, caving, rock climbing, mountain biking, sailing, a beach study, obstacle courses (high and low ropes) and problem solving tasks. This is a wonderful experience which allows the girls to extend and challenge themselves physically, intellectually and socially.

Kilve

Year 7 girls have the opportunity to spend a week at Kilve court in Somerset. Here they enjoy the challenge and adventure of outdoor pursuits including abseiling, canoeing, caving, rock climbing, mountain biking, sailing, a beach study, obstacle courses (high and low ropes) and problem solving tasks. This wonderful experience gives many opportunities for the girls to extend and challenge themselves physically, intellectually and socially.

Kilve has been a brilliant experience for every one of us in year 7 and will be a fantastic memory for life. Although there were ‘slip-ups’ and ‘frictions’, I feel that the majority of the time we all formed even closer friendships and I know that many of the year 7 pupils have become closer to the teachers. These significances are good as the aim was to get to know each other better and lots of people have conquered fears as well; be it fears of heights or even home-sickness. The amount of activities we were taught or we did was amazing as there was such a variety! We are all very grateful towards the staff at Kilve Court, the staff at OHS and with each other for making it a wonderful trip away! A. Momen (7O)

At first, before I went to Kilve I was really scared about dorms and activity groups and silly things like that, but I was excited for the fun ahead. First of all me and my friends were thrilled to get the back seat row on the bus! Once we had found out our dorms we went straight to sailing. I really liked this as it was fun and the instructor almost made me capsize! I have only ever done sailing once before so that was very exciting. Caving was fun and scary at the same time, but I loved it and was amazed about all the different types of rock formations and caves there was. The evening activity’s were all fun but I have to say that my favourite was low ropes and team building as it was active and mental, and made my group work together and scream rather loudly! My favourite activity was definitely mountain boarding as I had a great time and although I was nervous at first I conquered my fear and didn’t fall over once! Overall I think Kilve is great and you get to love new friends and hobbies! C. Rudyard (7O)

I had a really exciting week at Kilve and it was a very memorable experience. I had a vague idea of what to expect but it was much better than what I thought. I was really excited to do all the activities even though I found some quite challenging, like caving, which after a while I found was one of my favorites. I also really loved archery and sailing and hope to do more outside of school. Although at first I didn’t really know very many people in my activity group, when the week ended I knew and became good friends with most people in the group. I liked how the teachers were really involved and encouraged us to carry on and overcome our fears. All the facilities were really good and all the staff were really nice. Besides the slight lack of sleep, having a dorm with all my friends was really good fun, and it gave us more independence and freedom. Overall I really enjoyed the week and it was an experience that I’ll never forget. C. Neyland (7O)

I really enjoyed the Kilve Court residential! I made many new friends and met people from other classes. At the end of the week, I felt I really knew and trusted everyone who had been in my dorm and in my activity group. At Kilve I also faced my anxieties (when I went caving and had fun even though I am claustrophobic)! During the week, I tried many new and exciting activities such as sailing and mountain boarding.

At first I found it challenging to structure my time efficiently, and to make sure that I had everything needed for all the activities, but I soon became more organised and independent. On the residential, it was necessary to always listen carefully to others, to work together as a team and support each other to overcome difficulties. Everybody at Kilve was very kind and supportive, and the teachers were always there when you needed them. Though I felt slightly homesick, I had lots of fun and I learnt many different things! M. Calinescu (7S)

Kilve Court was an amazing experience. I really had no idea what to expect, except for maybe what some of the activities we would be doing were. It definitely surprised me and I found I loved all most all of the things we were doing. Of course there were some less good point, but they were only small things, such as the smell of our dorm after our drenched sailing clothes were left in the room for a few days…I really feel like I know a lot of my classmates a lot better, I also got the chance to get to know people from other classes and some people I don’t usually mix with. I had been a bit upset not to have any of my best friends in my activity group but getting to know the people I was with was actually really great. I feel like I have achieved so much and overcome some a lot of fears. I conquered the high ropes and overcame my slight claustrophobic fears in the artificial caves. Some of the activities have also encouraged me to try new things back at home, like after really enjoying sailing, I hope to try sailing down at Farmoor reservoir sometime. Y. Ghafor (7S)

General Studies

The sixth form General Studies course offers students the unique opportunity to pursue a range of activities. These include swimming, squash, real tennis badminton, tennis, rock climbing, self defence, trampolining, fitness suite and ball room dancing.

There is a Sports Scholarship in the Sixth Form and opportunity for participation in the Community Sports Leadership Award Click here for more!

Facilities

Indoor swimming pool
25m
6 Lanes.

Sports Hall
4 badminton
1 volleyball
1 tennis
1 netball
1 indoor hockey

5 Outdoor Courts
netball
tennis

Marbles court
high jump
short tennis
netball

Extensive playing fields
3 grass hockey pitches
1 athletics track
3 rounders pitches

Access to astro turf at Oxford Hawks hockey club and Dragon School

Extra Curricular

Extra curricular clubs and activities offer variety and challenge for every individual. All our clubs (except display gymnastics) are open access and give opportunities for pupils to improve their curriculum work. There are also clubs for sports not covered in the curriculum. OHS has excellent sports staff supported by an experienced team of visiting coaches. Sailing at Farmoor reservoir, Real Tennis at Merton College and ballroom dancing are examples of the latter.

There are competitive matches arranged regularly against both local and more distant schools. County and National competitions are entered annually with considerable success (See sporting achievements).

Badminton

Dance

Fencing

Gymnastics

Hockey

Judo/Self Defence

Netball

Directions for matches

Match nights fall on Mondays through to Thursdays. We also have two or three Saturday fixtures a term. Matches played at Home are normally finished at 6.00pm. When we travel, the return time is normally about 6.30pm.

Banbury Road North (BRN)

• Turn right out of Belbroughton Road onto the Banbury Road
• Continue through Summer town until you get to the Kidlington Roundabout
• Go straight over as if travelling towards Kidlington, you will pass a cemetery on your left hand side
• BRN (North Oxford Sports ground) is on your right hand side, just before the second set of traffic lights

(Hockey fixtures only)

Oxford Brookes (Cheney Lane entrance)

• Turn right out of Belbroughton Road onto the Banbury Road
• At the traffic light turn right into the Marston ferry Road, continue on the road until you reach the mini roundabout
• Go straight over both mini roundabouts and proceed up the hill
• Keep going straight (you will pass the John Radcliffe hospital and Headington school)
• At the traffic lights turn right (Headington school should be on your right hand side)
• Continue until you reach another set of traffic lights, turn left here (Oxford Brookes University will be on your left hand side.
• Proceed to the end of the road and turn right at the traffic lights
• To gain entrance to Cheney Lane you must take the second left and then immediately right (almost back on yourself) and that will take you into Cheney Lane and past Cheney school
• Proceed to the barrier entrance at the end of the road, which is where the astro turf and sports hall are.

(Hockey and Netball fixtures)

Tisley Park

• A34, North Abingdon Junction, follow the signs for Tilsey Park

Events