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Sports

Daily clubs and practices focusing on a variety of activities alongside competitive opportunities to represent the school in a wide range of sports. Take a look a the wide range of sports opportunities offered at The Crypt Grammar School.

Athletics
AthleticsWith access to a full tartan athletics track, athletics is a major focus for all students within PE lessons. Students develop the technical and tactical aspect of each running, throwing and jumping event with opportunities to represent the school in local, regional and national competitions.

Under the guidance of Mr Hart who competed in the 800m in the Sydney Olympics; athletics is a major part of PE & school sport programme during the summer term. Whether it is simply learning and developing the skills of each event or challenging themselves in the many competitive opportunities throughout the year students are encouraged to take part in athletics.
Each year, the school take part in the English Schools, Track & Field competition, and have reached the regional finals at Basingstoke and Millfield in the junior and intermediate boys’ competitions each year. The annual school sports day is one of the many highlights in the sporting calendar with the majority of students representing their respective house. Individuals have also taken their performance to the highest of levels in athletics, representing the district, county, South West and English Schools in various competitions.

Representational Honours
  • Joel Townley U18 English Schools Champion, Triple Jump – June 2019

  • Ben Wade U18 English Schools Finals, Discus – June 2019

  • Tom Pritchard U18 English Schools Finals 100m – June 2019

Cricket
Cricket

Another traditional sport for grammar schools is cricket. Played since our early days as a school, students develop the core skills within games afternoons and play competitive matches in local fixtures and tournaments.

We are one of only a handful of state schools in Gloucestershire to host a full grass wicket with a recently renovated pavilion as well as an astro pitch. We play a number of public schools as well as other local schools with teams from Year 7 boys & girls all the way to 1st XI standard. Within each year group, a number of students are involved in district and county cricket and challenged with playing different formats of the game and potentially playing up in higher age groups. 

Mr Windsor is our Director of Cricket who oversees the whole school cricket programme is well supported by other PE staff and Mr Germaine who is a business studies teacher and also a Gloucestershire County Cricket coach. Students access 1:1 support as well as wider team training sessions both in games and after school practices. 

Over the years, in 2014 and 2017 the senior cricket squad has toured Barbados and the Caribbean to challenge students and give them a cricket experience to last a lifetime.

Cricket Representational Honours
  • U17 County Squad 2018 – Nathan Rose-Inness
  • U15 County Development Squad 2019 – Arthur Kane
  • U13 District Cricket – 2019 Seb Pascoe, Oliver Workman, Ed Ball, Kaihan Zakhill
Basketball

BasketballA main activity within the PE curriculum, students develop the key skills of Basketball and have the opportunity to represent the school in local inter-school fixtures.

Clubs & Practices

Clubs & PracticesWe offer an extensive range of clubs and practices each week with 100s of students taking part in sport outside of the classroom. Students are proud to represent the school and commit to weekly training and competitive fixtures. Alongside the competitive side of sport students are also encouraged to just get involved with sport, whatever their ability.

Visit our Sports Website for more information on fixtures and results!

Football

Football

Is open to both male and female students at The Crypt School. Football is offered during the Winter Term. During this time, students benefit from playing in friendly fixtures against local schools, County tournaments and the ESFA National cup.

With teams running from Year 7 through to seniors for both boys and girls, football is a popular and successful sport at The Crypt. In Year 7 and 8 we are able to offer A&B teams and depending on numbers each year group has a boys and girls’ team. At times we have combined year groups for the girls, but football continues to be a very popular sport for students. Our passion to develop students is backed up by teams playing in local and national competitive fixtures. Girls predominately play football in Terms 1 and 2 and the boys teams play after Christmas in January through to April.  

All students benefit from regular football practice during extra-curricular sessions and afternoon games sessions. The school has benefitted from a variety of highly respected coaches, including UEFA-A qualified Chris Gooch, along with the appointment of a well-regarded Swindon Town Women’s player, Amy Leask who is an established member of the PE staff. 

Representational Honours
  • Cheltenham Town – Bradley Bevan (Year 12) & Daniel Webb (Year 10)
  • Bristol City U13s – Eva Flitney
  • County Girls School’s program 2019/20 Beatrice Norwood and Eva Flitney
  • U15 County Football – Nico Hewson-Barsellotti
Handball

HandballOver recent years we have developed an excellent partnership with Gloucestershire Handball. The club-skill link sees Handball fully embedded within the PE Curriculum and professional coaches come into school to lead the extra-curricular club. Students in Year 8 and 10 have the opportunity to represent the school in local, regional and national tournaments.

Netball

Netball

Netball has become the most popular female sport at the Crypt school. All girls have the opportunity to play netball competitively as part of a team, with two senior teams, and at least 2 teams per year group in Y7-10.

Our girl’s accomplishments in netball have exceeded expectations! We continue to produce some fantastic results against local grammar schools, private schools and academies. As well as this, our inclusive playing schedule has led to the active participation of almost ¾ of the year group in all years. Girls love to play netball here at the Crypt school and have ample opportunity to do so. 

Inspiring the next generation of netballers

With the introduction of our four refurbished outdoor netball courts and our single indoor netball court, our students benefit from training and playing regularly. We are delighted with the outcome of this new development and are eager to host plenty of tournaments and local matches. .

Students have the opportunity to sign up to a uk based netball tour, playing against schools from the district and Wales. As well as this, we relish the opportunity to watch some elite level netball - following our local team Severn Stars. 

Many of our talented netballers have progressed onto working with our S&C coach, Ed Archer, within our Sports Academy programme. In their weekly sessions, students focus on all areas to increase their mobility, agility, speed and power. Five U13 students have successfully made it into both County programs. As well as this, we also have our own Severn Stars Nova Centre based at Crypt. Home grown talent Kiara Dixon represents the Crypt School with pride!

Our students benefit from regular practice slots during extra-curricular sessions and during their games afternoons. The school has benefited from employing Miss Cantin, a well respected former U19 England netball player to guide the girls through all aspects of the game. As well as this, Miss Williams offers a great deal of knowledge to our younger students as well.

Representational Honours
  • County Programme – Kiara Dixon and Beatrice Norwood
  • County Development Programme – Safia Neocleous and Eva Flitney
Racket Sports

Racket Sports

Sports such as badminton, tennis and table tennis are a big part of the PE curriculum and extra-curricular programme. Students develop the core skills within each sport, with competitive opportunities to represent the school in local, regional and national tournaments.

All students in every year group access rugby and whatever ability students are encouraged to represent the school. The rugby programme is firstly based on participation with students playing in A, B and C teams in Year 7. As students’ progress throughout the school, they are challenged by representing the school in comprehensive block fixtures on a Saturday, as well as local and national tournaments such as the Year 9 EDF County Cup and the NatWest National Competitions. 

Badminton

Delivered in core PE, students develop the key skills and gain a thorough understanding of the tactics of both singles and doubles play. Students have the opportunity to take part in badminton club and represent the school in the district and county tournaments. 

Table Tennis

Table tennis is introduced to students within core PE who then have the opportunity to sign up to Table Tennis club. The club is run by external, county level coaches who challenge and develop students’ skills and tactical awareness of the game. Over recent years the club has seen a great deal of success with students opting to use Table Tennis for GCSE PE assessments as well as representing the school at district and county tournaments.

Tennis

For the last few years and to challenge a number of individual students we have entered the LTA National competition, reaching the regional knock out rounds for the last two years. However, the introduction of the new hard court area will allow us to embed tennis within the curriculum and evolve our tennis provision to challenge more students and play more regular fixtures each summer term. 

Rugby

Rugby

As a Gloucestershire Grammar School, rugby has traditionally been one of the main sports at The Crypt. The comprehensive rugby programme is focused on getting as many students involved in the sport as possible, alongside trying to be as competitive as we can on the pitch.

All students in every year group access rugby and whatever ability students are encouraged to represent the school. The rugby programme is firstly based on participation with students playing in A, B and C teams in Year 7. As students’ progress throughout the school, they are challenged by representing the school in comprehensive block fixtures on a Saturday, as well as local and national tournaments such as the Year 9 EDF County Cup and the NatWest National Competitions. 

The senior programme has significantly improved over recent years. Students develop a wider responsibility to develop as a team; accessing a full S&C programme and medical support from Prime Practice, ensuring they are in the best possible condition to represent the school at 1st. 2nd and 3rd XV level. 

We have strong links with Gloucester Rugby Academy, with numerous students in each year group involved in the DPP and PDG groups of the pathway. In the past we have also had students manage their time and school commitments with the U17 and U18 Academy at Gloucester RFC; with students able to gain full access to the Academy Programme as well as being part of the senior rugby programme at the school. 

Representational Honours
  • Gloucester Rugby U17 Academy 2019-20 - Blessing Mwaisoloka & George Wallin
  • Gloucestershire U18s – Oliver Clarke & Sam Collins
  • Gloucester Rugby U16 DPP/PDG 2019-20 – Henry Bell, Elliott Norwood & Ibrahim Ahmed

Strength & Conditioning

Strength & Conditioning underpins every aspect of PE and school sport at The Crypt. At whatever level of participation, students are challenged to develop their functional movement. In partnership with Athlete Academy, students access a wide range of strength & conditioning provisions including professional coaching and specialist equipment. The better the movement, the better the performance. 

The movement pathway in Key Stage 3 PE allows students to gain a thorough understanding of the fundamental movements which underpin athletic performance. Students are then challenged to develop the correct technique and learn a variety of training methods to enhance their own performance at whatever level that may be. 


Sports Academy

The programme is designed to create a clear pathway to support and challenge our more able athletes so that they go on and fulfil their potential in their chosen sport.

Our Sports Academy programme is designed to identify, support and challenge our more able sportsmen and women who have shown potential within their chosen sport. As a PE department, we have developed the following set criteria to identify our most talented athletes: 

  1. Performs at county level or above in his chosen sport.
  2. Makes an outstanding contribution to various sport teams within the school, demonstrating all-round ability and a commitment to extra-curricular provision.
  3. Consistently shows a higher level of ability and attainment in core PE lessons in comparison to the rest of their year group.
  4. Sets an example for other students to follow in terms of behaviour, effort and endeavour when representing the school. 

The sports academy programme is run in partnership with Ed Archer and Athlete Academy. Ed has been supporting the PE department for a number of years and his input has become invaluable for our students. Ed was strength and conditioning coach for Gloucester RFC for 7 years before launching Athlete Academy. He is fully qualified with a BSc (Hons) in Advanced Sport & Exercise along with being a tutor, coach and assessor for UK Strength and Conditioning. Ed truly is an expert in this field and his understanding of what needs to happen for students to maximise their potential is second to none.  

The focus of the sports academy is to develop students’ knowledge and understanding even further with regards to functional movement. The sessions focus purely on Strength & Conditioning and developing the all-round athlete. Workshops also take place throughout the academic year to challenge students understanding of their role within sport, focusing on topics such as diet, sport psychology and barriers to fulfilling potential.


Severn Stars Nova Academy

We are incredibly privileged to be the only state school provider of the superleague pathway in the local area. Students across the country travel to Crypt to train in our performance academy. The Crypt School is therefore actively involved in promoting high performance netball having links with the high performing superleague side. We hope to promote and inspire our students to compete at this level in the future, with one student (of many more to come) already performing at this standard! 

Rebecca Cantin, Head of Girl’s Sport currently leads the Nova with the partnership of Athlete’s Academy driving the Strength and Conditioning program. Thanks extended to Kylie Benadie leading the S&C and Sue Walton for managing the side. 

The Severn Stars Netball Franchise has a clear vision to develop, perform and grow players.  The player pathway consists of 10 U17 Nova academies. It is a real privilege to have been asked to lead this at Crypt. The Nova Academies are the next step up in the pathway model from County Academies and replace Regional Performance Academies. We look forward to continuing this partnership with Severn Stars and have many promising future stars in Y7, 8 and 9 who will be trialling in years to come. 


Visit our Sports Website for more information on fixtures and results!

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