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 Astro.

Many schools have to look to external coaches for individual sport tuition. Ballard Sport has six full-time PE staff, who have extensive teaching experience across not only the traditional school sports but also new and exciting sports that are very popular such as volleyball, girls’ football and cricket, badminton, handball and basketball.

Boys and girls focus on six sports a year, these are: football, rugby, basketball, hockey, cricket and athletics. Girls is similar with hockey, tag rugby, football, netball, cricket and athletics.

We have strong links with local sports clubs, which enables us to provide further opportunity and encouragement for those pupils who wish to develop into county, national and, potentially, international players. The club links for all sports encourage pupils to follow up their passion with local or regional clubs. The community access programme is geared to supporting Ballard pupils with clubs such as Lymington Netball, New Forest Volleyball, New Milton Cricket being based at Ballard.

As well as winning a wide-range of team competitions, we also support pupils in their success out of School across a wide-range of representative sports. Pupils can access bespoke arrangements for tennis, skiing, horse riding / equestrian and sailing.

Ballard’s approach is that sport and its benefits are for life and so our values are summarised by the acronym TREDS – teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship.

First and foremost, Ballard strives to make sport a positive experience for everyone and we recognise that there will be a great range of ability and skill but that every child has potential and needs encouragement but also challenge.

At Ballard Sport we understand the importance of fitness in all areas of life. Our Health Related Exercise (HRE) units help each child develop a bespoke fitness programme. In addition, our key strands in the “Early years” provision focuses on gymnastics, running and basic catching and throwing. This develops through the Ballard Journey into finer skills and games skills and tactics.  We share this with parents to help our children continue the programme at home.

Sports for All Day

Read more about our Sporting Heritage here.

I love Ballard Sport because of the great facilities such as the Astro and tennis courts that we use nearly every lesson. The PE staff are so fun and supportive whilst being great teachers and coaches.

 

Pupil

I love the Scholarship programme at Ballard. It’s been great. I wouldn’t have made the Nationals without it. I particularly like the gym sessions.

 

Year 8 pupil

The teachers aren’t just interested during school hours. Three teachers recently attended the rowing regatta at Milford and sought out the Ballard kids to see how they were doing. Our child thought they’d come specially to see them which they probably hadn’t, but they made the effort to find them and chat with them there. That made them feel recognised.”

 

Parent

Thanks so much for all your hard work on sports (again) this year. I think this has been one of our daughter’s favourite aspects of school life here.

 

Parent

When I came to Ballard I couldn’t do many sports – but now I can play sport well thanks to the wonderful support from the teachers. I love Ballard Sport

Year 6 pupil

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 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.

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