Ballard Sport
Ballard Sport provides a positive and inclusive award-winning sports’ provision with specialist PE teachers teaching all pupils from Nursery upwards in outstanding facilities, including an olympic-sized astro turf.
Sport is essential for physical, mental, and emotional well-being and Ballard’s comprehensive tailored sport provision, based on our inclusive “Sport for All (SFA)” ethos, prioritises participation. It instils crucial life skills: teamwork, respect and perseverance so that everyone feels welcomed and valued. Success isn’t just about trophies, but also little wins that mean the world to our pupils. By nurturing talent, fostering achievement and personal growth, and by empowering pupil ownership and promoting physical development and literacy, we support them now, and for their future. Testament to this is the success of current and former pupils competing at the highest level for Great Britain across an array of sports including four alumni competing at the Paris Olympics, with two bringing home medals!
“Everyone can play no matter what their ability, everyone has the opportunity to find a sport they love.” Y8 Girl
SFA embraces a huge range of ability, skill and potential amongst pupils from Nursery to GCSE. Tailoring fixtures and curriculum to the cohort allows every pupil to play at their level. Co-ed teams and challenging pupils to reach their full potential is encouraged e.g., a Y10 girl playing first team cricket. New initiatives aim to increase opportunities, participation and enjoyment for all.
“I love how we are in ability groups so the people that need help are helped and become stronger people.” Y6 Boy
Pupil voice inspired “Sports for All Day”. Celebrating inclusivity and diversity, we rotated athletics (zone A) with a choice of ‘fun’ competitions (zones B-D) including tug of war, inflatable assault course, and water polo. Results were outstanding, breaking records and fostering a sense of camaraderie, fun, and achievement for all.
“It seamlessly married traditional elements, with utterly bonkers new activities including Zorb football. It was a great!” Parent
“It was great – everyone supported each other.” Y10 Girl
SFA starts in Nursey with specialist dance, PE, sports fitness and gymnastics, improving flexibility, strength, performance, and enhancing pupils’ self-esteem. Health-Related Exercise develops a bespoke fitness programme for pupils, promoting confidence, enhancing fitness, strength, speed, agility, and flexibility. In addition, our leisure pathway offers unconventional activities including canoeing and mountain biking, providing fresh opportunities to all.
“I’m really impressed with the introduction of off-site activities… quite inspirational for all pupils.” Parent
Our new scholarship programme is attracting more pupils as we invest directly in their talents. This bespoke programme provides a holistic approach, with specialist teams helping each pupil to be the best they can be. It also includes inspirational talks/workshops from experts, including Olympic Gold Medallist, Eve Muirhead.
“It’s been great, I wouldn’t have made the Nationals without it.” Y8 Boy
Through our commitment to SFA, a focus on fitness, mentoring, and a diverse range of opportunities, we empower pupils to excel in sports and beyond. With increased pupil engagement and increasing numbers choosing GCSE PE, there is continued positivity and inclusivity at Ballard.
“Our daughter has never been a particularly keen sportsperson but is willing to give everything a go at Ballard.” Parent
NURSERY
In Early Years, Ballard pupils are taught by fully qualified PE staff using specialist equipment. We focus on fitness, gymnastics, and core skills. Movement is such a key area at this stage as it enhances both gross mechanical movement and finer motor skills which are essential to child development.
We therefore spend a large proportion of time working as a group and individually to ensure that the correct foundations are laid for all future sports – especially catching and running which many children find tricky.
One child who had poor co-ordination in Kindergarten is now in the Year 4 hockey team – so it is worth starting early.
PRE-PREP
Pupils receive a diet of individual sports and team games which concentrate on embedding the foundations learnt in Nursery. Many of the skills learnt are now identified as strengths and weaknesses with particular emphasis on improving body control and gymnastic movement.
In Pre-Prep we introduce two extra-curricular activities a week – skills clubs and fun sports. In addition to this pupils are given the opportunity (at a small additional cost) to join Ballard gymnastics After-School club.
Ballard has an extensive array of gymnastics equipment and a large Sports Hall which has enabled us to host the New Forest Gymnastics Festival for the last couple of years, welcoming 12 local schools.
Throughout the summer term children receive intensive swimming lessons to increase water confidence and refine their strokes. Certificates are presented at the Pre-Prep swimming gala and this year more pupils swam two more lengths than they ever have before.
LOWER PREP
Flexible streaming at Ballard (from Year 3) allows sport for all and ability-related lessons are modified as pupils improve. A focus on mixed gender games enables Ballard to stretch our able and talented pupils both physically and in their understanding of games.
The emphasis here is on learning the key skills and techniques of the core sports of hockey, netball, rugby, football, swimming, athletics and tennis and ensuring everyone has the opportunity to learn the basics.
The fundamental skills of movement are key to progression for this age group – allowing pupils to receive the ball in space, advance in attack and develop an understanding of formations and team play.
By setting personal goals we encourage all pupils. One Year 4 girl who couldn’t swim when she joined Ballard a year ago has just taken part in the Ballard triathlon, to the astonishment of her parents.
New sports such as volleyball, badminton and basketball also develop core physical attributes and transferable skills which are essential for all sport. Exposure to alternative sports often highlights a child’s potential that may not otherwise be recognised.
Extra-curricular activities are offered throughout the week both at breakfast club and after-school activities. Over 12 pupils took part in the mini triathlon in 2018 having gained confidence in extra-curricular activities.
UPPER PREP
This is where we hone the skills previously learnt and can offer a higher level of competition and challenge. However, we can also provide a wider range of options and activities in this age group, thus giving individual opportunities for development as well as the core sports.
Ballard focuses on invasion, net and individual sports to encourage a high-level of performance whilst trying to reduce common mistakes often seen on the sports field. We have had many successes in tournaments and against much larger schools with this approach.
Within Ballard we have staff who have competed at a national level at sport and coach men’s and women’s teams to regional success. The guidance that is provided as mentors is invaluable to the key lessons that our pupils need to learn to compete at the highest level in and out of School. Many pupils at this stage go on to represent their county in a variety of sports including: athletics, triathlon, hockey, swimming, netball, rugby and football.
There are many extra-curricular sports’ opportunities available to pupils in order that they can develop their skills further.
SENIOR
At Ballard we continue to provide opportunities for a wide-range of sports but also encourage fitness and training. Our huge range of activities (currently in excess of 25) widens the appeal of sport to everyone.
With a specialist sports’ academy, sports’ prefects, sports’ scholars, and exceptional mentoring and coaching opportunities, we promote excellence in sportsmanship, independence and team play throughout.
For this age group pupils are encouraged to coach younger pupils alongside the PE team to develop empathy and understanding of what is needed to be successful in sport and the wider world. By providing this opportunity we see children flourish both as mentor and mentee with the older pupil in particular gaining a deeper understanding of the game.
Having opportunities to compete at a wide-range of sports at School gives them the confidence to extend their abilities and compete for development squads and senior teams.
The development of club links is incredibly important and we see many pupils strive to win places in representative teams for district, county and national level.
We also offer GCSE Physical Education where most pupils begin the course in Year 9; focusing on their selection of a mixture of team and individual sports.
